Covid passports. One jab England, one Scotland = no vax passport. Anyone else?

[NightmareSlashDelightful]

Been tearing my hair out going round in circles with NHSs England and Scotland on this.

I had my first covid vaccination in England, then moved house, and had the second one in Scotland. Have subsequently also had a booster here in Scotland.

So all good, technically. BUT. I now cannot get anyone to update my NHS Scotland vaccination record to show that I have a complete vaccination status; i.e. no vaccine passport.

The passing around-the-houses that has gone on has been ludicrous. NHS Inform tells me I need to speak to NHS England. NHS England tells me I need to speak to NHS Inform. NHS Inform tells me I need a QR code from my first vaccine from NHS England. NHS England tells me they can't generate one of those, as their system only does this for two vaccines, not one. NHS Inform tells me that because my first vaccine record is a paper card, not a QR code, they don't have the facility to update the record and there's nothing I can do.

Both systems are claiming that it's the other one's responsibility to sort this out.

I ended up speaking to VDRS (vaccination data resolution services) in both England and Scotland, and they've just thrown their hands up and gone 'can't help, sorry'. The GP, both my new GP here in Scotland and my old one in England, don't want to know either.

So I'm now either locked out of, or left with annoying and longwinded bureaucracy for, large events and International travel. It's extremely irritating; I have done everything I was asked to do throughout this time regarding vaccinations.

Anyone else in this situation? Any bright ideas as to how to go about getting the vaccination data brought together?

/rant

There were quite few posts about this in Higher education boards in autumn.
Students home for summer got 1st vaccine in Scotland then got 2nd back at university town in England or Wales or vice versa. Effectively both systems had them registered as only having had 1 vaccine 🤷🏼‍♀️

I would contact your MSP. It's ridiculous the systems don't talk to each other and needs sorted at Gov level.

Thanks patritus

Yes I think my MSP is my next call. He's going to get a very structured letter that he is not going to enjoy.

Have you tried getting nhs England to update your postcode ?

I have yet to try it but they said that should let the data flow

Yeah I tried that @anothersmahedmug

Apparently — according to the NHS data people — that isn't how it works and never has and whoever told me that is a liar. (Despite it being on NHS Inform’s website.)

It’s bonkers, utterly bonkers. Still, at least I have been vaccinated, I’m grateful for that. I just can’t prove it.

If you get success can you let me know how?

Don't know if you are in Lothians @NightmareSlashDelightful but it popped up on my Facebook that Sarah Boyack MSP has raised this in Parliament and she's asking affected constituents to get in touch.

Ooh that’s interesting @WhatWouldTheDoctorDo

I’m in Edinburgh but covered by NHS Lothian so maybe worth an email

Definitely worth getting in touch with her then @NightmareSlashDelightful sounds like she's at least trying to raise awareness of the issue. I sympathise - I almost got my 2nd jab whilst on holiday in England last summer and was told it wouldn't be a problem, but I'm so glad I didn't. I hope it gets sorted for people soon.

We've got the same problem. Old GP has emailed confirmation of our first vaccine but it doesn't have the bar/QR code needed to upload to NHS Scotland. Phoned NHS England to request a copy with a code and they don't have access to our records any more as we're not registered with an English GP.

The data resolution person said I'm not the only one she's spoken to re this and has flagged it as an issue with her manager.

I have a similar situation, though less drastic than your case: I had the booster in England. They have no record of this in Scotland and have in fact booked me for a booster appointment here.

I called the number off the booking letter, they told me to call another number, they told me to call 119 for NHS England, who told me they could have helped me were I in the reverse situation, but that in this case the request had to come from NHS Scotland, called 119 again choosing the Scotland option (which gave way more select-a-number-from-these-options menus), where the guy taking my call consulted with others there and came back to advise me that I should be able to resolve this by calling one of these two numbers: the first number I had called and the second number I had called. So it was a perfect loop.

I have since then found a few more numbers to try, but I'm not optimistic. Perhaps they'll give me some more numbers to try ;)

I'm in a similar boat. Jabs 1 & 2 done in England, moved to Scotland and had a hell of a job getting a booster as the system didn't recognise the first two jabs. Like you, I was passed from pillar to post.

In the end I drove 60+ miles to go to a walk in session in the hope that once I was in front of someone they'd see sense and just do it. They did, after much umming and aaahing. Still can't get covid passport though.