Covid booster for housebound.

[Sourcreamsky]

Does anyone know how housebound patients are getting Covid boosters?
My mum is housebound. She can only get out of the house with the aid of ambulance crew as she has big steps leading up to her doorway and then she needs the ramps that lead into the ambulance etc.
I have had a horrendous time trying to chase her surgery for information and have been told 3 totally different things to date.
First they said it would be a district nurse, then they said it would be a Dr doing overtime, next that she was number 5 on some list and recently, she’s been referred to some external team?!?
I appreciate that one of the big issues is the fact the injection has to be kept at a certain temperature.
Does anyone know what is happening with housebound patients? I just don’t know where to turn anymore?

Another sleepless night, worrying about how to sort this out. 😢

My mum is also housebound and is getting the flu and booster today fingers crossed. It's the district nurse doing it but it's been a faff to get it done. Have you called the district nurses directly?

I think you will just have to keep nagging the GP. It will be very dependent on them. It will be day when they are doing several as the vial has 6 doses in it & it can only be used for 6 hours after opening.

I originally got told it was the GP and then when I chased it for the fifth time yesterday, I got told it was being outsourced to this roving organisation (that doesn’t seem to exist). Waiting on another call back from the surgery today. I was told initially it was GPs doing it. 😩

They are having difficulties getting teams together to deliver the vaccines. Simply not enough staff. We are doing no boosters or flu which to be honest we are far too busy to do anyway.

We are getting told different things all the time. If your mum is on the list she will be done sometime but we often don't know until the day before. It might be on the practice website so have a look there rather than phoning

Have you called 119? Might be worth a shot. No pun intended

I had my first two vaccines done by the housebound service, but they haven't been able to arrange it for the boosters because they (booster jabs) are Pfizer/Moderna, which are much more difficult to take into the community. Eventually I had a lot of help and planning, and we decided to take the risk of getting me to a vaccine centre - obviously for someone even more strictly housebound that might not be possible. But it's not that they don't care about housebound CEV patients, it's just genuinely really difficult at the moment. They were able to bring the flu jab out as usual.

@Musicaltheatremum

They are having difficulties getting teams together to deliver the vaccines. Simply not enough staff. We are doing no boosters or flu which to be honest we are far too busy to do anyway.

We are getting told different things all the time. If your mum is on the list she will be done sometime but we often don't know until the day before. It might be on the practice website so have a look there rather than phoning

Yeah, we had no warning of my flu jab, the lovely nurse just arrived with it! But of course it's not like I was going to be anywhere else.

I phoned 119 this morning and spoke to such a lovely lady. She couldn’t help (but spent ages trying too bless her).
I’ve since heard that a team should be starting up the visits in the next few weeks but obviously the logistics etc is a bit of a nightmare.

Hope you manage to get this sorted for your mum.

So, it’s now the 4th of December and my mum is still waiting for both her Covid booster and her flu jab. Beyond fed up. Her carer says that most of the housebound she looks after are also waiting. It’s just such a worry.

I work in a GP surgery & most of our housebound patients are waiting too. Truth is there's nobody to do them. District Nurses have no capacity and the Community ANPs (who did the first & second doses here) have no capacity.

GPs have started going out to do them, but taking one GP & one HCA out of surgery is a nightmare in itself - especially as we are also running the local Covid booster clinics for those who can get to us. Also we are a large practice in a fairly rural community. A GP going out for 3 hours is able to visit maybe 10 patients. And the housebound list is around 300 patients long....

We have done the retirement villages & nursing homes. It's just those in their own homes we're struggling with.

CoffeeRunner (great user name) what do you think will realistically happen? I can’t stand the thought of the housebound just being written off? My mum literally can’t get out the house and everyday she literally messages me, so upset about the jabs.
I’ve been trying to sort something since September. Unfortunately, her surgery have very little time for the elderly.

Is there no way to get her out of the house and in a disabled taxi in her wheelchair?

I know this is not alwaysays easy . My mother was housebound and her front door was up stairs but we used to be able to get her out and down the stairs if we had 2-3 able bodied adults We called black taxis ( which I appreciate is not always an option) which all have removable ramps to push the wheelchair up. Alternatively some taxi companies have disabled access vehicles that take wheelchairs. I am not saying it was easy but we managed to get her out and back occasionally when it was important

We managed it at the start of the year but she needs her Zimmer frame to get out the actual house as the front door is up steps and to get out the house she has to walk down then up then down (confusing). She’s got an extra wide wheelchair too (just to cause more problems) and even if she had ramps, we can’t get it out through the door.
When she’s had appointments, the ambulance transport service have managed it with special chairs and ramps.
She falls very easily too. She once waited 6 hours for an ambulance after a fall.

Her legs have just wasted away since Covid as she’s had none of the services or visits from physio to help her strengthen them.
Tbh, if I had known back in September what a nightmare this would have been, I might have looked into finding a cab with ramps. But even if we could get her out, with infection rates as they are I feel she’s probably at more risk in a taxi or going to the massive leisure centre where they vaccinate.
The worst thing is, I keep getting told ‘it should be soon’ & then nothing. This has gone on for 2 months now.

@Sourcreamsky

CoffeeRunner (great user name) what do you think will realistically happen? I can’t stand the thought of the housebound just being written off? My mum literally can’t get out the house and everyday she literally messages me, so upset about the jabs. I’ve been trying to sort something since September. Unfortunately, her surgery have very little time for the elderly.

Well speaking specifically of our surgery, they will all be done eventually.

This may take quite a long time though unfortunately.

Just to add - our GPs definitely aren't thinking of writing off the housebound elderly, so please don't worry about that.

They definitely haven't been forgotten, I know our local hospital are working very hard to sort the logistics out to do the boosters in patient's homes via district nurses and ANPs. It's not an easy ask unfortunately.

I hope your dm gets it soon.