are all walk-in clinics open to all patients, from anywhere?

[SaltedCaramelHC]

I have booked my booster for 3 weeks time, which was the soonest I could get.
The NHS 'search for a walk in clinic' site didn't bring up anything near me.

But when I searched specifically on google for walk-in clinics in a relatively nearby town (but different county), a site comes up that says walk-ins or appointments, for 1st, 2nd, and booster. When I search a bit more about the site, it was clearly used by the local PCNs for appointments for quite a long time. Now it seems to be offering walk-ins alongside appointments, but I can't tell if that means it is just walk-ins for patients registered at those surgeries, which is why it doesn't come up on the national site. Or can anyone use a walk-in centre, wherever they're from (including out of county)? Can a centre be a walk-in just for certain surgeries?

(It's Lord Butler centre, in north Essex officially but near several other counties)

As long as you're eligible for the booster, you can go anywhere in England for it.

@Sweetnhappy1

As long as you're eligible for the booster, you can go anywhere in England for it.

That’s not strictly true. Some local vaccination sites run by GP practices will only vaccinate patients registered at one of their practices. You can go to any Mass Vaccination site.

@SaltedCaramelHC I would have thought it would say ‘only for patients from X Y Z practices if they didn’t want people from elsewhere.

I am eligible, yes. But I wondered if certain centres were just for local patients (my original one was at the GP, run by the PCN, only for patients for specific surgeries) - I thought perhaps they were still doing that, but had decided to allow walk-ins for patients from those surgeries only alongside the appointments. But that sounds a bit unlikely, and if I can go anywhere in England, then it should be OK. Just didn't want to drive a long way to find out that I'm not.

Yes that's what I wondered about. It's clear that this site used to be a PCN-run one for certain GP practices, and certainly still does appointments as well. So I don't know if it's now a mass-vaccination centre or not. It didn't come up on the search on the nhs site, but did when I searched the town name and 'walk in'.

It looks like that's near saffron Waldon, is that right?

If so, then depending where in that part of the county you are you might be able to visit:

Haverhill arts centre, 19th Nov

sneevaccine.org.uk/location-of-walk-in-clinics/#booster

I think that one is often quite busy though, so it might be a bit of a wait.

The South of Cambridgeshire is looking pretty sparse for walk-ins.

The other place is Braintree:

www.essexcovidvaccine.nhs.uk/coronavirus-vaccine/walk-in-vaccination-clinics/

Looks like they're running tomorrow and Monday.

I haven't done across many GPs offsetting walk ins to anyone but there are some so your idea may be worth a go but I wouldn't call it either way.

Haverhill would be quite possible so I'll check that one out, thanks.
There are several counties close together and the national site doesn't seem to list many of them. I think it looks at your 'home' county ,and maybe gives choices at the far end of that county rather that potentially nearer ones in a different one.

Or I could just wait for the booked one, or wait to see if my GP gets in touch, but I thought if a walk-in was offering them sooner, I might as well try. I expect they will be very busy, though!

I think the local sites will be better: this is a place where several NHS coverage areas join together so there's not an obvious place to look. I've linked to two lists above but it might also be worth checking:

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough lists here:

www.cambridgeshireandpeterboroughccg.nhs.uk/news-and-events/latest-news/covid-19-national-vaccination-programme/information-regarding-walk-in-clinics/

And then Herts and West Essex (where saffron Waldon is) is here:

covid.healthierfuture.org.uk/events/vaccination-walk-in-clinic-times

I’m not in your area but our MP shares details of all the local vaccination clinics locally and who can go to what. We are also on the boundary of several counties. Have you tried looking anywhere like that for source of info? I found it much more useful than the NHS info which sends me to Leicester every time even though it’s the least convenient place for me ever.

A lot of the walk-ins here are very restricted to particular surgeries but then they also throw in some generals, on the same sites! Not helpful really.

Well I was lucky and they were fine about people from other areas coming as walk-ins, though they had to check at the door whether it was allowed. There were also a lot of people locally with booked appointments, all mixed in the same queue. The only thing they wouldn't do was give flu jabs to people out of area, but that's fine.

Glad to hear they were happy to do anyone and that you got your jab!

Yes me too, and so far no side effects!
I'm not sure if they'd have done absolutely anyone, but they were certainly doing the relative wider area, as they understood there were very few walk-in places around.
Of course as soon as I went to cancel my booked appointment, there were a couple of cancellations for Monday at a closer place, but I don't care, I'm done and I'm very glad of it! No other appointments were coming up other than random ones until very end Nov/early Dec, so I was happy to drive a little way.