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.

The hub in the next big city- a train ride away- has dates again- there were non yesterday. I’ve booked for 30/12 and Hope I don’t feel too pants for new year and that the queue isn’t too awful.

@HerbertChops If you’re in SW London, the Wimbledon Centre Court vaccination hub is doing walk ins. A colleague got one there yesterday.

Apparently there is going to be a press conference today about the roll out of this and there will be more pharmacies involved according to the BBC, hopefully one in my town will do them.

OP you have my sympathy. Do you have local friends on social media you could ask about appointments?

It was a complete fluke that I turned up at our GP pharmacy during a Covid jab session a few weeks ago. They told me that they release the slots into the NHS booking system at 9am for the following week. Sure enough I was able to book them (but they were snapped up within a couple of hours). If you are near a county border, you might get closer results using a different postcode.

I would happily volunteer as a Marshall to help with rollout (did the 20 minutes of training etc and wasn't needed last time), but our only mass vaccine centre doesn't have public transport (just a park and ride bus then a mile walk across fields or on a busy A road). There are quite a lot of car-less households in my town so most won't be bothering.

The school vaccine rollout is also in a mess because, now they are finally visiting schools after cancelling earlier visits, a lot of the kids have had Covid in the past 3 months.

Lots of availability in SW London, but only offered online 6 months after first dose. You might find your options open up after that.

@PinkSparklyPussyCat - you can see other slot options at the same site before cancelling now, take a look. Did you take a letter last time? Might be useful to have something you can show that says "I'm severely needle phobic, I want the jab but might struggle to talk." and then they should help you.

I work at a large vaccine hub, we are doing nearly double our capacity from earlier in the year, this is because most of the smaller centres have now shut. Staffing is a real issue now, yesterday I stayed on from an early to do a late, as there were no nurses booked for the late! Staff work absolutely non stop all day, I can't see how we could increase our capacity anymore, we wouldn't have the space or the staff.

Walk-ins here are 12-15 only so far. Booked my booster a couple of weeks back but earliest available date was 11th December. Our gp hub is also about to move to a smaller site, and has only been operating at weekends. It is going to take a strategic change to increase capacity to cater for the newly eligible groups.

Always had to travel about 8 miles.

It does seem like there are going to be real practical issues with speeding up the 3rd jab programme. I was due mine in early to mid January and would be fine having it immediately, but I wonder now if even the January date I'd anticipated will be doable. It's such a huge undertaking.

@MRex

Lots of availability in SW London, but only offered online 6 months after first dose. You might find your options open up after that.

@PinkSparklyPussyCat - you can see other slot options at the same site before cancelling now, take a look. Did you take a letter last time? Might be useful to have something you can show that says "I'm severely needle phobic, I want the jab but might struggle to talk." and then they should help you.

I really want a different site and I only get shown slots local to the one I've already booked, not to my postcode.

I didn't take a letter last time, DH was with me and did the talking. I'm hoping he'll be able to wait with me this time as I know I won't wait if I'm on my own. I've already panicked at the pictures of queues this morning, I can't queue for long, I just can't. My vaccine is currently booked for 4th Jan so I'm hoping it's quieter by then!

I’ve just booked mine today. There was nothing available within 10 miles and the earliest date I could find was 21 December.

@PinkSparklyPussyCat - do you know anyone else due to book who can tell you availability? Our road's WhatsApp group has occasional comments, people say if there's availability and anyone who isn't booked yet could check for you. (I agree with you that it ought to be possible to do wider searches and swap rather than cancel/ rebook though!)

Very easy where I live, Outer London, so also SE

It does seem to depend on location, London and SE have access but at least that keeps the economy going😥

Picked up a text from gp hub earlier, booked via link and just had it! Cancelled the previous booking made via nhs site.

We had trouble getting ours. Eventually managed at a walk in the best part of 30 miles away.

My family all live within a couple of miles of each other. My sister was done at the doctors, my mum at a chemist and I was done at a hub. I haven't heard of any problems of people getting it round here. Maybe we're just lucky.

I'm in outer London. Nothing available in my local high street (with 5 pharmacies). I was offered a pharmacy in Bexley (couple of boroughs over) or one in a tricky place (for getting into central London for work afterwards) about 4 miles away. I'd really like a Saturday appointment, but there weren't any anywhere. I've booked a hub about 7 miles away as I can get the train there and to work easily afterwards.

If I didn't have to go into the office every day it would be easier! I'm not using annual leave for it ... (I did look in central London, too ...)

I've just booked my booster, and it was way better than getting first and second shot. So many places are available. I found one less than 5 mins walk.
Last time I had to drive to next town to get my shot. So pleased.

The thing is that many of the volunteers at the hubs are now back at work fulltime - I am - I work a 7 day week I have 2 afternoons off and spend one at the vaccine hub but overall not as many are available and they are needed - my hub struggled to fill slots long before the booster programme. Plenty of people could probably do a shift a week - it is a 3 hour slot - they don't need to be medical volunteers others are needed to take temperatures, book people in, clean chairs, man the car park but alot of people who have a lot of free time do not want to volunteer - we spent the first part of the vaccine rollout in lockdown so plenty of people were around. This is a big reason why some centres have closed and they will struggle to re-open some of them. Everyone wants a local centre but fewer and fewer people want to or are able to help out.

@PilatesPeach

The thing is that many of the volunteers at the hubs are now back at work fulltime - I am - I work a 7 day week I have 2 afternoons off and spend one at the vaccine hub but overall not as many are available and they are needed - my hub struggled to fill slots long before the booster programme. Plenty of people could probably do a shift a week - it is a 3 hour slot - they don't need to be medical volunteers others are needed to take temperatures, book people in, clean chairs, man the car park but alot of people who have a lot of free time do not want to volunteer - we spent the first part of the vaccine rollout in lockdown so plenty of people were around. This is a big reason why some centres have closed and they will struggle to re-open some of them. Everyone wants a local centre but fewer and fewer people want to or are able to help out.

The return of compulsory isolation for household members of some positive cases isn't going to help either. Due to the new omicron rules, many of us are now facing an increased risk of immediately having our children confined to the home for 10 days with no notice, so of course that has a knock on effect wrt what we can commit to.

@VikingOnTheFridge yes of course. My comment is in response to people say how far they have to travel for a booster - there are just fewer volunteers around nowadays overall for a variety of reasons - plenty of my friends could volunteer but can't be bothered they just see it as something someone else does.

Those of you advising to use a walk in centre, the nhs website states that:' You must have a letter from your GP or hospital doctor. If you do not bring the letter, you will not be able to receive your 3rd dose at the walk-in site.'
Did you all have a letter?

[quote PilatesPeach]@VikingOnTheFridge yes of course. My comment is in response to people say how far they have to travel for a booster - there are just fewer volunteers around nowadays overall for a variety of reasons - plenty of my friends could volunteer but can't be bothered they just see it as something someone else does.[/quote]
Mmm, it's just such an unfortunate situation. I only found out today about the logistical problems, need for volunteers etc. I work part time and if not for the isolating kids thing could probably commit to a morning a week. But the very thing that has led to the greater demand for boosters also means less volunteers generally.

I got mine 6 months to the day. I booked it on line a week before without any problem. I had to go 15 miles away as the only clinic near here only vaccinates on 2 days a week. They were both doing walk ins as well as pre booked up until a couple of days before I had mine but now they're only doing pre booked. There had been a lot of complaints about the way they were running as there was only one queue so prebooked weren't getting priority over walk ins which meant elderly and disabled were left queueing outside in the cold for well over an hour. None of them were previous vaccine centres - they've all closed and gone back to their original purpose (sports centre and GP practice).
Most of my friends who are same age and had their 1st & 2nd vaccines at a similar time to me have all had booster a few days to a week after me regardless of the area they live in.