Covid Booster Vaccination

[Mrr T]

I would be interested in others experience of booking a booster. I got a text from the NHS to say I should get a booster. I got my original vaccinations at a nearby surgery and my wife at the local race cource about 2 miles outside the city.

So went on to the NHS app to book and got offered a number alternatives. However, none where in the city, dispite a population of 168k, and the nearest was 10 miles. A google map viewed showed the nearest had no parking so will have to travel a bit further.

This will not stop me getting a booster but might it explain the low level of take up. Has anyone else similar experiences?

[21TonyK]

For a while the nearest available centre for some of my colleagues was about 90 miles away but within a week other local centres were available. Hang on a couple of days maybe.

[Riley Blue]

What low level of take up? Where I live it's 77.2% first dose and 71.6% second dose.

ETA: No idea what happened, I'd added 'Local hospital has been giving booster jabs since mid-October to the most vulnerable and pharmacies are able to do it as different age groups are called forward.

Edited by Riley Blue on Sunday 14th November 13:34

[Glosphil]

We had our booster jabs at a local surgery, 2 miles away, last week. Plenty of nearby parking in the village. We were the last of our friends, all in late 60s to mid-70s, to have the booster jab.

[anonymous-user]

Local pharmacy for us less than 3 miles away - very easy to book and plenty of slots available.

[Bobtherallyfan]

20 mile round trip to the nearest location for us, despite having a GP Surgery 500yds away and three separate village halls that could be used if somebody could be bothered to organise it.

[Derek Smith]

Mrr T said:

I would be interested in others experience of booking a booster. I got a text from the NHS to say I should get a booster. I got my original vaccinations at a nearby surgery and my wife at the local race cource about 2 miles outside the city.

So went on to the NHS app to book and got offered a number alternatives. However, none where in the city, dispite a population of 168k, and the nearest was 10 miles. A google map viewed showed the nearest had no parking so will have to travel a bit further.

This will not stop me getting a booster but might it explain the low level of take up. Has anyone else similar experiences?

Could be the app. I went online via it to book, and our favoured times/dates were unavailable near to where we live. The nearest was in Brighton, with poor parking. Had a chat with my wife for alternatives, and went back, this time on the website, only to find two locations nearer me, both with available slots which we wanted. Booked mine first, but when I tried to book for my wife, the slot available was 10 mins after. It seems demand is high.

When we got to the location, there was a bit of a queue. (If you say to one of the volunteers that it's busy, and he says 'You should have been here Sunday', don't say, 'No. I booked for today.' They've heard it lots of times.)

[LunarOne]

I received an invitation today by text message with my name and a link to accurx.nhs.uk

All looks normal, so I tap on the link. At which point I see the NHS logo at the top left and then the name of a surgery which I've never heard of. I google said surgery name and it turns out not to be too far from the vaccination site I've visited previously, but which I've never been to. I thought maybe my GP surgery was over capacity and had bumped me off to another surgery. It's happened before when I moved a mile down the road and was deemed no longer to be in the catchment area for my original surgery. However, I haven't moved and a quick call to them reveals that they've never heard of me either!

I work in IT so usually can often imagine how things like this might occur, but in this case I can't work out what's happened!

[Old Merc]

Last month My wife and I both had a text from our local GP health centre inviting us to make an appointment. We did and had the booster in a couple of days. The same procedure with the other two jabs, very fast brilliant service.