No vaccine yet, have to go to work - scared

[RhubarbCrumbling]

Hi
I am group 6 due to 5 separate factors of all are which are group 6 alone. I shielded 2020 until Aug 1st after official letter telling me to. A Gp has manually removed me from shielding which is did not know about so no vaccine for me yet and was not considered in the recent who shall we add to Shielding list due to manual removal.
Receptionist will not let me speak to a Gp, saying no mistake made and to wait my turn. I have a feeling I will be bottom of group 6 jab list now!

I have to go to work on Mon with no PPE, and no vaccination, other colleagues with one condition have had their vaccination due to postcode lottery. I was hoping for a jab before school started on 22nd. I have to be in school every day with teenagers due to nature of my job now I am not on SPL.

Am so scared.
I have been very ill in hospital with in HDU twice and resus once in last few years with normal illnesses that seem to have affected me badly due to my conditions.

Cannot get signed off work as no access to anyone medical as they are too busy to see people due to vaccine roll out. No big hubs here, so done by groups of Gp’s it appears.

Feel sick as 22nd approaches. School just are a business - more people that can be in less money used covering me. And this is without all schools opening up on 8th March.

[quote RhubarbCrumbling]**@DavidsSchitt I cannot book using nhs link as it says I am not eligible. Have tried, daily.

@Skyla2005 sadly cannot get signed off unless have a medical person to do that.

I am not going to lie and say have to isolate as my school may ask for evidence. Nor do I wish to lie. Getting a test is no use as results back the next day! Plus we have to do tests twice a week if in school.[/quote]
OK. They won’t have the right to see proof of another person’s Covid status if you said one of your kids had symptoms, but fair enough. If you are too anxious to attend work you can self certify for a week while you get your medical status sorted. I was just trying to come up with some options that might mean you didn’t have to go to work. Hope something comes up and you don’t need to go til you feel safer. Xxx

What is SPL?

Definitely keep trying to contact the Practice Manager. I had trouble trying to get my DH into Group 6. He had a heart attack but it wasn't on his records.

Clear your head about being removed from the list. What you actually want is a vaccine now, and to be signed off until you have some immunity. Nothing else matters right now. Call to request a spare today. Stand outside he building they are vaccinating every afternoon if you have to.
If this is our last lockdown, that list will be ripped up and meaningless anyway.

Who do I phone to get a spare? As Gp practice refusing to talk about vaccines?

@RhubarbCrumbling

Three phone calls, 2 emails - receptionist and admin staff refuse me a triage Dr appointment. So can go to A&E, a pharmacist, or ring 111 but not actually talk to someone who chose to remove me from a SPL list, no.

111 can still access your medical records, if you aren't getting any joy with the surgery ring 111

Thanks. I am now waiting for a Gp to call me back. Managed to get hold of receptionist and then a nurse for my consultant. The nurse is aware of what happens but not heard anymore yet from them as obviously consultants are busy. Nurse was not happy with what appears to have happened and has told me to stay at home and shield until consultant is contacted. Nurse asked for copy for email so sent that.

Taken today off work ill, as can self certificate for this week. Have spent most of this am on the phone and waiting for calls back so could not have had a class in front of me.

Thanks for advice - and gentle support. Felt like just giving in and accepting I had to go to school, with no vaccine and if caught it then had to trust a Gp who had not spoken to me that I am low risk. The nurse that spoke to me from the hospital did not think I was low risk so that is helping me. But a nurse cannot sort SPL lists or vaccine groupings out.

Well done OP, fingers crossed x

No phone calls yet. If I had been given an appointment time it would have helped today.

Am also keen not to be in school as if I got an infection needing hospital treatment and am in without a vaccine worried about that too.

Should not read threads of only have a history of GD and do not work etc and already had my vaccine.

Gp reviews my health and said no. Message by admin person - not talk to me.

Hi Rhubarb, sounds like you are group 6, so hopefully you should be vaccinated soon. I get why you are worried, I have a bad chest (asthma, they think, I'm on Fostair but not always well controlled) and I appear to be prone to pneumonia. I'm in a customer facing role in a line of work where I can't socially distance from my colleagues and apparently not in a priority group at all!

My mum managed to get a vaccine by phoning a number for vaccines that were left over at the end of the day and would otherwise go to waste. I wonder if this is an option worth investigating?

@RhubarbCrumbling

Gp reviews my health and said no. Message by admin person - not talk to me.

Bloody hell, I would change doctors OP!!!!

I have fostair and quite a lot of other medication.
No support to get a group 6 vaccine.

It is safe for me to go to school tomorrow with no PPE but not for a Gp to see a patient with paid for by the Government PPE. Why is that? Oh and had at least one dose of Pfeizer vaccine.

No idea of numbers to phone to get vaccines.

@RhubarbCrumbling

Gp reviews my health and said no. Message by admin person - not talk to me.

No for being in group 6, or no for being on the shielding list?

It sounds very frustrating for you though. I hope things go better with the consultant

What can they mean, said no to what? You need an appt to discuss your extreme anxiety. They can decide there is a foundation for that anxiety or not, it doesn't actually address your anxiety! They cannot refuse an appt with you like this. Though I do think speaking to this particular GP is not likely to be very productive is it

If you don't qualify for the vaccine you don't. In any case it won't give you 100% protection right away. Your best option would be to get signed of with anxiety/stress.

OP phone again and insist on a phone appointment with the GP. Say that you will be making a formal complaint and contacting your MP if they keep fobbing you off.

The GP doesn't even need to see you, they just need to speak to you. God some of them are lazy useless twonks.

Thanks Vivienne. Nice to know on average despite 3 admittance to hospital a year, 5 NHS consultants and several conditions at least group 6 that you agree with my Gp I don’t deserve it.

So back to school tomorrow, no PPE. On 8th March I will teach hundreds of students a week. I have written it all down, evidenced it all.

I still do not know why I have had no face to face consultant appointments - all cancelled, and Gp’s do not see people face to face anymore when people like me with multiple conditions are not classed at risk.

My consultant is off work. My main one. Annual leave, for second week in a row so no contact.

No point talking to a Gp. I think any trust in this Dr has gone and no their Dr will overrule him.

I have given up.

Nice to know other people have supportive medical practitioners.

It has annoyed me how GP's have been hiding away for the past year yet pharmacists are open to the public and having rashes shoved in their faces all day. I don't know why they aren't seeing people now they've had the vaccine there's no excuse.

Why are you going back in OP? Don't do it in a kind of "that'll show them" way - you're the one who will suffer ultimately.
Is there just one GP is this unhelpful practice?

I know you’re really frazzled with all this OP & I don’t blame you, but did you do what was suggested on this thread yesterday?

Did you phone & say you needed an urgent telephone appointment with your GP? If pushed for details just say anxiety (which you have). I am absolutely flabbergasted if you have been denied an appointment having done this. This would at least serve the purpose of getting you a sick note for a couple of weeks.

I didn't say I agreed with your GP and you didn't deserve it. But it looks like you have hit a brick wall re getting the vaccine from that particular doctor. They will be following guidelines given out by the Department of Health I should imagine. You sound very stressed out and anxious. I don't know if you can appeal your GPs decision. Perhaps somebody else can advise on this.

@Viviennemary

I didn't say I agreed with your GP and you didn't deserve it. But it looks like you have hit a brick wall re getting the vaccine from that particular doctor. They will be following guidelines given out by the Department of Health I should imagine. You sound very stressed out and anxious. I don't know if you can appeal your GPs decision. Perhaps somebody else can advise on this.

If they’re saying that OP doesn’t qualify for a vaccine in Group 6 then they’re not following Department of Health guidelines.

Here’s a link to the Covid green book chapter 14a, which gives covid vaccine advice to healthcare professionals:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-the-green-book-chapter-14a

Table 3, on page 10, lists clinical risk groups who should be vaccinated.
I’m not going to go through OP’s list of health problems and cross refer them to that list, but it looks like OP ticks several boxes on that Table 3.

Even if OP’s GP believes that she doesn’t need to be shielding, she should still be on the Group 6 vaccination list.

OP, you may have already done this, but if your GP has said that you’re not on the Group 6 list, then I’d be writing a formal letter of complaint detailing your relevant health conditions that qualify you for the vaccine, and referencing the official guidelines available online, and complaining about not being on the list for Group 6.

PP’s advice about trying to get signed off for anxiety while all this is resolved is probably also worth trying.

@CoffeeRunner yes I rang and asked for urgent Gp apt. Was told was allocated one. Just got a message passed back through the admin person. Not spoken to myself. I asked if the Dr would speak with me. No phone back - waited all day.