Booking a vaccine is like pulling teeth

[TheVampiresWife]

I've got to the 'confirm booking' page now about 20 times, and when I click confirm it tells me that one of my appointments is unavailable and to rebook it. Which I try to do, only to find that there's either no new date available or there is, but at a centre I can't get to because it's too far away. I've been refreshing and trying since about 7am and also yesterday evening.

Anyone else having similar problems? Is it a glitch or just that the appointments getting snapped up too fast for me to book one?

I didn't have that problem at all. Booked really easily and lots of appointment times and dates available.

Have you tried calling 119 instead?

This happened to my dad as well. In the end he just called 119 but now his appointment isn’t for another 2 weeks. If the online booking had worked he would have been able to have the jab the next day.

I had a bit of a battle when booking my mum's at the end of January, but I think I only had to retry 6-8 times.

I have to go to the next city for mine. There isn't any local availability.

I had no problem at all - I booked on Monday for an appointment yesterday.
I don't think there's anything wrong with the system, just that there's high demand - which is good really, but obviously annoying if you're having trouble getting a slot.

Obviously it must vary by area /centre.

Two relatives had similar problems and ended up having to call 119. In this area, if you are vulnerable, you get a text from the gp and a link that takes you straight to the booking page for the local go hub. Got my text at 2pm Tuesday. Was all booked and confirmed by 5 past. It seems a bit of a lottery in other areas.

Found it incredibly smooth but maybe I chose a low-demand facility . Maybe try booking at quieter times?

Mine was dead easy . Took about 3 minutes

I had exactly the same problem, until got up at 4am this morning (just woke up early) and booked successfully!

Try very late or very early!

Mine was booked through gp (gp rang me to book me in,)
Do you have option to go to gp for it ?

The implementation of the system is pants.

If there are 5 available slots and there is someone ahead of you trying to book at the same centre on the same day, chances are they'll pick the first available slot in the morning, or afternoon. When YOU come to book, that slot will still be "available" as they are busy booking their second appointment.... but by the time you get to the final page, they have beaten you to it!

To minimise the chance of this - when you book the first injection, pick the second or third available slot and then complete the whole booking as swiftly as possible.

Our GP hasn't got any vaccines and doesn't know when they are getting them.

RampantIvy

Don't go through your GP - if you are CEV or over 60 use the national NHS Booking Service - but I recommend you try in the very very early hours (before 6am)

You should have your NHS number to hand (is on any medical letters you have) but if you don't know it you can still use it.

I didn't go through the GP. I got a letter with a link to book it online, so I did. Our GP practice actually posted on Facebook last week to say that they didn't know when they were going to get the vaccines.

I booked online yesterday and the first available date is the end of March, and the nearest available vaccine centre is a 30 mile round trip. I'm surprised the local town didn't have any availability.

Totally forgot I posted this in the midst of My Booking Hell yesterday!

Took me another fourish hours of constant refreshing and re-entering my details but eventually I managed to get both booked. Unfortunately the second one is 30 miles away - I don't drive, a taxi would be prohibitively expensive so four separate bus journeys and four hours travelling it will have to be. Bit worried about being on public transport for so long but hopefully rates will be lower come June and I'll have some protection anyway.

First one is in two weeks, just up the road!