Wife told she can't have vaccine - just yet!

[Jacobsdad]

My wife is a key healthcare worker AND pregnant. Her PCT wrote her approval for the vaccine last week and she was told she could go to our local hospital today and get her shot. When she arrived she was told that because she is pregnant her GP has to administer the vaccine. She then called our GP practice who basically said they don't have the vaccine and have no idea when it's due - in their words "It may be here in the next couple of weeks or so but we're not too sure". It makes me so furious that my wife is sitting there in a room with a nurse holding a syringe with the vaccine in and is told she can't have it - just crazy...

Quite mad... couldn't the hospital have given her a dose to take along to the GP or something, at least?

Apparently not - I guess (and understandably) they wouldn't just allow her to walk off with a dose of the vaccine - unless it was actually in her! She asked them to call her GP for approval but they said that protocol wouldn't allow them to give the shot even if he agreed!

Grimma - the vaccine is in multi-dose vials rather than single dose pre-drawn syringes so that wouldn't be possible.

Jacobsdad - I can see how frustrating that must be, if it's any consolation those of us that work in GP surgeries are as confused as the rest of you! Our local protocol doesn't seem to stipulate that pregnant NHS workers have to have it done at their GPs, so it must vary across PCTs.

The whole business is very muddled.

Hi Singed - I actually do sympathise with the staff at the surgery, I can imagine that they are being bombarded with questions about when the vaccine will arrive and if they don't know then what more can they say. My frustration (for my wife) is that after all the bad press the vaccine has been having it was a big decision for us to conclude that it was for the best and then to be refuse (for now) is just a bit of a knock back. It does sound as though different PCTs have different protocols.

Yes its crazy. DS1 had vaccine last night but DS2 was poorly so couldnt have it. I said shall i book him in to have it next week and they said they may not have any, as they are awaiting delivery and they dont know when they will get it in. I said can he not have the one he missed today but apparently the vaccine doesnt keep past 24hrs. So now I have one son vaccinated and one not .

I imagine they're purely trying to save money. If Occy health can get out of paying for one vaccine then its less cost to them.

Which is very wrong I should add.

They don't have to pay for it Stripey, it's provided by the DoH - which is part of the reason why we have no idea when the vaccine will be delivered as it's being unco-ordinated by them and not the individual practices.

The whole situation is very frustrating for everyone I think.

the practice i work in was told we would get 40 doses at the end of this week so 40 patients were booked for Monday

190 doses arrived - we spent all week getting grief from patients who wanted the vaccine and we told them we didn't have the supplies and the suddenly we do

it's total chaos