Vaccine Query- if you had your vaccine arranged by gp surgery did the gp surgery call you to book you in for your second dose?

[AnAutumnafternoon]

Hi all, just as the title asks really. If your second dose was in the recent past or is in the near future and your 1st dose was booked by your gp surgery did your gp surgery book you in for the second dose? My gp surgery initially said that they will be
contacting me to book me in for my second dose (and this is what the nhs website says too) but now they are saying that they won't. They recommend either calling them everyday to find out if they will be having a clinic but reckon they may or may not ever have one; walk past the surgery everyday to see if they've got a clinic going on or book one online through the NHS booking system (but I don't drive). Just want to know if this is the normal or if it is something I need to complain about.

Also, please can you let me know if you call to book an appointment do you get given an option of either a telephone consultation or a face-to-face appointment or do they just book you in for a telephone consultation and then make you wait throughout the day for their call?

I am considering complaining to the gp surgery and possibly the local mp about these diabolical practices but would like to know if what my gp surgery is doing is standard amongst gp surgeries. Tia

I am sure I saw somewhere that the guidance to GPS is to offer a face to face if patients want one deoending on apponmtent avialbabilty but I am not sure if it is mandatory for them to do so or if it just guidance that they can ignore?

Sorry for replying typos

My GP sent me a text with a link a couple of weeks before my second jab was due, and I booked it through that.
However, if I’d wanted to, I could have gone through the main NHS system and booked my second jab myself at a different place.

My GP rang to book my second dose.

ATM we still ring for an appointment first thing. We are told the GP will ring back hopefully within an hour slot. The GP will then decide after a chat whether they need to see you F2F, need photos or issue prescription (remotely to a pharmacy of your choice), referral etc.

No - they said they would, but then the Government changed the system and we booked online.

You've been able to see a GP face-to-face throughout here, but you do get triaged first - you either fill in an online form or call and arrange a call back and they let you know if they want to see you.

Thank you for your responses.

@TakeYourFinalPosition did your surgery tell you that the government changed the system and ask you to book online, if not , please can I ask where you found out the government has changed the system? "The government has changed the system" sounds very much like a line a receptionist at a gp surgery will use to fob someone off. I can see on www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/coronavirus-vaccine/ still says "If you have your 1st dose through your GP surgery, you'll be contacted when it's time to book your 2nd dose."?

@Seeline with our surgery we don't know when we'll get a call back so patients have to take their phones with them to the toilet! This surely can't be right!

@AnAutumnafternoon No, it was on the news that anyone aged over 30 could now book online, including for second doses given at GP surgeries. I think I got a text from the Government, too, although I'm not sure if that was after I'd booked.

To be fair to the doctors, they may well have booked it for me if I'd called and asked, I didn't really try. Online seemed easier all round! I did my inlaws that way, too, and DHs.

Sounds like you need to book it online. When you go online it will give your some options for the nearest vaccination places, I think there’s a separate website for checking where you can just walk in for a vaccination.
My adult children don’t drive either yet but they were able to book their second does in the next town on the train line. We live fairly rurally so bus service is dire.

At my 1st vaccine appointment I was told they'd contact me about the second. However I ended up booking online after not hearing anything. Some centres nearby were doing open days so I knew they had the right vaccine from their adverts. I've spoken to a few people who waited and eventually found out the gp would no longer be contacting them.

As for appointments, at my surgery you phone up, get cut off numerous times, end up in a queue for 30 minutes, get told there's no appointments left and repeat the following day. If you are ever lucky enough to get an appointment, it's a phone call with a gp, at any point in the day. It's really crap, especially if you're juggling work, kids, etc while feeling ill.

the second appointment they booked at the same time as the first. In the end I brought it forward to 8 weeks by using the website. They aren't booking any now.

The system for getting an appointment is you ring and a doctor rings back that morning or send an email on the website and a dr rings back next working day. If you need to be seen they book that on the phone. The system used to be you rang and if it was urgent they rang back same day otherwise they booked a phone call for a couple of week time, then you were triarged. Much better system now. I've had stuff sorted on the phone, on video call and seen drs face to face. I hope they don't change it and talking to a nurse she said I'm not the only one.

I work in a GP surgery. We have waiting lists for patients needing 2nd doses who are unwilling to attend one of the centres. One list for AZ & another for Pfizer. Once we have enough patients on the list to make it worth cracking open a couple of vials (6 or 11 doses), we contact them to arrange a small clinic. A lot of patients don't understand that they can't just be fitted in for it or have it while they are in surgery for something else (as you might with a flu or shingles vaccine) due to the fact that if you open an AZ vial for 1 patient you waste the other 10 doses.

Apart from that though the system works well.

You can just book on line, it will know you've already had one. Or go to a walk in clinic.

These "diabolical practices" as far as I can tell are having to book your second jab online, and a doctor phoning you when you have a health issue.

If you are going to complain to your MP, I'd suggest couching it in terms of, "I don't drive and I live in blah, can you help me get to somewhere for a vaccine, please?" And the second outline how this has caused you harm or prevented you from accessing care.

Or you could, you know, book a vaccine online somewhere you can get to by public transport, or get a cab, or arrange a lift. That would probably be less hassle in the long run than complaining.

I was texted twice with the link to book for both jabs. I have an injection every 12 weeks and have been into the surgery every time for an appointment with the nurse. For the doctor I have had phone appointments but it has been fine. I know it is not the same everywhere but that has been my experience.

I would be very surprised if you couldn’t access a booked or walk in spot locally. Lots of pharmacies are doing vaccinations, as well as the larger clinics.

I received a letter from GP with apt for 1st jab and was given the date for my 2nd (written on my covid jab card) by the nurse.