No booster appointments available- any tips?

[Eve]

DH has been trying for weeks to get an appointment but none available with 50 miles of us.

Are they released at certain times? Any other hints on how to get one?

Do you have any walk in centres near you?

My experience is that they are like hen's teeth. BUT, as people cancel or rebook they come up. DH had his today and I had mine booked for the 22nd. I went alongwith him and asked on the off chance they had any 'leftovers' and they did. So I have now cancelled my appointment and it is ready for others to take up. I really recommend hitting refresh and refresh for as long as you can stomach it (I was doing that for over an hour on one single occasion in order to get DH's booked).

Very best of luck.

Try turning up on spec. There'll always be people who don't turn up.

Oh and also look up 'NHS grab a jab' it will show the walk ins if they have any near you. My nearest one was 37.8 miles away though.

Try and turn up to a local site and ask if they have any walk in availability

Have you searched using a different postcode for example his work? It doesn't have to be near home, you can have it anywhere. Alternatively any nearby cities you could easily get to?

Booked mine yesterday and had my pick of venues and time slots with dozens available every day.

Where are you? I don’t know anyone who’s had a problem getting one so far (who qualify for one). Also know a few who’ve done walk ins.

I know a lot of the big centres have closed now but when I booked mine if I went out another week quite a few pharmacies showed up.

There seem to be big regional differences - here there are virtually no walk ins advertised but OH was able to book for tomorrow when he tried this morning, other areas seem to have more walk ins but fewer appointments.

I booked for ds1, last night, and availability was vastly increased on a couple of weeks ago, when i last tried.

www.england.nhs.uk/ccg-details/
Look up the ccg in your area, and follow through to their list of vaccine walk ins (seems to have ones the national site doesn't, in some areas). Also try sites that claim to be bookable only if you are nearby especially at the end of the day - I got my booster bit early by doing that.

Look at local forums about walk ins too. And reddit mega threads www.reddit.com/r/GetJabbed/

New walk ins opening up, and also mobile centres/buses so keep checking back to your ccg page, and also follow your local council on twitter or other social media/check their website regularly.

A walk in centre would be the way forward, if poss.

Closest I'd got on the booking site was next Saturday, 40 miles away.

Then thought I'd check my local surgery and I'm booked 20 minutes walk away on Wednesday morning. They are running three sessions a week that aren't on the booking site.

Cancelled my Saturday slot, so I expect someone else quickly snapped it up.

Depends where you are. I had no issues booking mine today, for this coming Friday. Plenty of times available to me. Keep trying

I'm surprised it's so different in various areas to be honest. I easily booked mine last week for the following day and there was 3 sites within 15 minute drive away to choose from. When I was there most people didn't seem to have appointments either- just walked into the tent ( well it was a big marquee next to a chemist) and asked if they could come in for a jab. Nobody was turned away.

Keep checking. My original one was for 20th Dec. I kept logging in to check availability for earlier dates but was only getting ones for nearer Xmas or after. Logged on yesterday morning and they must have released a load of dates as I got one for yesterday afternoon.

Just keep refreshing. Took me around 10 minutes of doing so but got one in end.

I originally had one 12 miles away in early Jan but was then invited by my GP and have one next week a few minutes walk from home. If your GP isn't offering them, it's worth looking for walk-ins but be prepared to queue, especially now.