Why not make booster availability as easy as vaccine availability?

[BigButtons]

Where I am SE England the vaccine rollout was excellent. It was easily accessible and very efficient with loads of local centres.
I have been trying to book my booster and am being asked to now travel over an hour away. I’d they want people to take the booster jabs why are they not making it easier to do so?
Is it the same everywhere else? Even walk in centres are reducing in number. I don’t get it.
I want to get my booster but it’s nigh on impossible to find a space.

Thanks @ajandjjmum. Last time I was shaking and crying and DH had to speak for me as I could barely string 2 words together. First time one of the lovely volunteers stayed with me and the 2nd time I had a volunteer and DH. Each time everyone was lovely and didn't make me feel any more embarrassed than I was already was.

How will they roll this out now if us over 60s are unable to book our boosters after 6 months, is it just going to be a free for all, if you are younger, more mobile, able to get to a walk in th3n great, the rest of us get left behind. I am hoping they insist doctors surgeries, pharmacies and more accessible centres are opened to give boosters but they wont.

@Maverickess

It's all a bit of a shambles really, I'm 8 months post vaccination, and I work in social care, today was my third attempt at getting the booster, through work (no facilitation for night shift workers offered from the employer) they were due at 10am today, I turned up at 11, not there, 'rescheduled' for 12.30, just left again because they're not there. Local GP surgery or pharmacies aren't doing them, nearest place I can book an appointment is 30 miles away and will take me a full day to get there and back on public transport. Yet I'm supposed to be 'priority' so I can protect the people I am working with because they're vulnerable - and should they decide that the booster is included in 'fully vaccinated' my job is at risk too. Not sure how I can protect the people I work with when I can't get access to the vaccine.

That’s really dreadful

I received a text from surgery asking if I would volunteer to help at the 1st jab sessions and the annual flu jabs as I am a retired hcp, they wouldnt offer me the vacinnation first so I am not surprised there is a shortage of volunteers. Here where I am they cant even be arsed to protect the people who are supposed to be protecting others.

CEV to be offered 4th dose!

@KittenCatcher

I received a text from surgery asking if I would volunteer to help at the 1st jab sessions and the annual flu jabs as I am a retired hcp, they wouldnt offer me the vacinnation first so I am not surprised there is a shortage of volunteers. Here where I am they cant even be arsed to protect the people who are supposed to be protecting others.

I had my vaccination at the end of a shift, when we had three left over. I was happy with that, as it was literally the week I was due. I did notice one volunteer came for one shift, had her jab and has never been seen again!

It’s ridiculous. They’re saying have the booster but we can’t get booked in.
DS (vulnerable) has just managed to get an appointment today but it’s a 2hr round trip drive.

It’s not easy where we are either.

You can book up here but can also just walk -in to lots of places. Lots of chemist shops doing it for NHS.

Why are the government not employing people at the vaccination centres - to be a Consenter you have to be a Registered Health Care Practitioner - Registered Nurse, Speech Therapist, Podiatrist etc etc. there just aren’t enough of them around. I’m a retired registered nurse. Came back in Feb to do the vaccine programme. 12 hour shifts killed me (not as young as I once was he he he) so I’m now on the bank and just do 2 6 hour shifts a week

aj, I hear what you're saying but you had doses left over and a volunteer got one, better that it going in the bin.

His appointment isn’t today!
It’s in 3 weeks time

I'm currently doing my Pfizer 15 minutes
No queue, straight in, all done
I just wish I'd taken some rennies because my aid reflux is making me cough and people are looking at me

Acid reflux obviously...

Check local chemists ...husband got his just walking in ...did his flu too ...no appointment
He's 54

@Casamilano

Why are the government not employing people at the vaccination centres - to be a Consenter you have to be a Registered Health Care Practitioner - Registered Nurse, Speech Therapist, Podiatrist etc etc. there just aren’t enough of them around. I’m a retired registered nurse. Came back in Feb to do the vaccine programme. 12 hour shifts killed me (not as young as I once was he he he) so I’m now on the bank and just do 2 6 hour shifts a week

The people running the vaccination centres are employing people - they have to be qualified, but there just aren't enough of them at the moment.

Know what you mean about the long shifts - I do an 8 hour one once a week and it kills me. I enjoy the 4 hour ones though.

I dont buy the excuse there are not enough staff any more. Where I live we have 24 GP, 12 nurses, 5 pharmacies, a local community hospital and not one of them is offering the vaccine or booster.

Im in SW London and it seems all the large vaccination centres have been closed and the boosters are all being done in pharmacies instead. All are a drive away. I could book from the 20th December onwards but only getting Christmas Eve or New Years Eve, would rather wait til kids are back to school in January. DS just had covid in October and none of us caught it so I'm thinking that would have boosted our immune systems anyway!!

@KittenCatcher

I dont buy the excuse there are not enough staff any more. Where I live we have 24 GP, 12 nurses, 5 pharmacies, a local community hospital and not one of them is offering the vaccine or booster.

It's not an excuse, it's a fact. There is a shortage of vaccinators. Presumably your GP's, nurses and pharmacists are busy doing their normal work?

Yes but they do the flu vaccine so why cant they do them both at the same time like hundreds of other places do around the country. Do you think offering a financial incentive would make a difference.

I volunteer as a steward at vaccine centres so I get to see where the ones that use volunteers from this particular source are. There seem to be lots of other places, small and larger - I had my booster in a place that doesn't use my organisation.

Most of the big hubs have closed and returned to their original use and now it's mostly pharmacies, doctors' surgeries and a couple of the smaller hubs. The ones that were in sports facilities and are now closed seemed quite hard to access, being normally used by people who could manage a brisk 20 minute walk or could drive themselves, but many frail people got brought by relatives, friends, neighbours or local community or church volunteers.

The small places offering now tend to run occasional, short sessions, to fit in with their other work. Mostly booked only. I listen to people asking about booking and the answer seems to be that they put their appointments online as and when they know they can run a session. One pharmacy says it's generally late Friday afternoon, other places don't seem to know, so you may find that a convenient time and place suddenly pops up if you can manage to keep checking on line. Although that's not very convenient, the advantage is that GP surgeries and pharmacies tend to be much more local or accessible by public transport than the big hubs. You could also try asking your local pharmacy as they might be able to tell you when they expect to add appointments to the Government booking system.

So this morning I read that they are reducing the minimum wait time. How will that work? Even more people trying to book a vaccine or find a walk in round here. Great🧐

I'm resigned now to getting it in the New Year, hopefully there will be something locally then

@BigButtons

Where I am SE England the vaccine rollout was excellent. It was easily accessible and very efficient with loads of local centres. I have been trying to book my booster and am being asked to now travel over an hour away. I’d they want people to take the booster jabs why are they not making it easier to do so? Is it the same everywhere else? Even walk in centres are reducing in number. I don’t get it. I want to get my booster but it’s nigh on impossible to find a space.

That's not the situation in our area at all. We are in the southwest and the vaccine centre for the booster is even closer to home. It's a 3 minute walk now and availability was fine.

Having read some of the other posts, it's worth mentioning that our boosters were done in a local hub and not in a surgery or pharmacy. It was a large hall in a big building with nothing to do with medicine in it's normal life.