Jab on Tuesday!

Presumably the letters are an insurance measure - some people will miss the call/not listen to messages/maybe not have a phone/be too deaf to hear anyway/ or phone lines are down in a storm, etc.

Seems sensible to me. There would soon be furious reactions if appts were made only by phone, and some people were continually missing calls, and so missing out on the jabs.

If no letters are sent when you should have one, what are you supposed to do, Witzend? There has been no way to query it. It is only today, after numerous emails and tweets to Nicola Sturgeon from shielders, that the protocols have been changed.

It's shambolic in Scotland.

I’m so angry on your behalf, Marydoll. It’s a horrible feeling that you (or in my case my mother) have somehow been passed over.

I still haven’t had a response to my message to Sturgeon. ???

What makes me cross is that there are probably still some people at home, assuming that they'll be "in trouble" if they politely draw attention to the fact that they appear to have been overlooked.

Our surgery, who are coordinating four local surgeries put out on Facebook tonight that this weeks vaccines have been diverted as they’re doing so well. They have some from groups 1-4 to chase, but have said ‘in the near future’ it’s group 5 and possibly group 6. They deserve a gold star, not interruption.

I tweeted NS and Scotgovt. I'm raging at the way I have been treated. I have had so many issues with my surgery, during shielding. It has made me feel totally worthless, as if I don't matter.

At least I'm savvy enough to deal with it, but what about those who haven't the capability to challenge it?
I made a formal complaint a few weeks ago about this very matter and how they have compromised care for the vulnerable, through neglect.

My husband got a text this afternoon from our GP surgery. He’s 68 years old with no underlying conditions and was given an appointment for Wednesday this week. He’s delighted as he sort of worked out that we’d both be the beginning of March.

Do you think it’s because England is tackling groups differently to those in Scotland Marydoll? Or are they just slower? I do really feel for you you must be feeling upset to be so neglected. I hope you too hear something this week. And for your mum SueDonim.

Wow, that’s bad Marydoll. . My mum has had no official contact from anyone since the pandemic started. She could be lying dead in her bed for all they know.

I think I said earlier, her friend only heard in October that she should have been shielding and been given food parcels and so on.

X-posted, UG. My mum was done yesterday and and I’ve got mine next week, which is a month earlier than I was expecting.

The programme has speeded up since the Army got involved. There was also a ridiculous four tier system in place for surgeries to order the vaccines they needed and it simply wasn’t being sent out fast enough.

Excellent news SueDonim!
Now, we just need to get Marydoll sorted out ...

Things have just got worse. My front tooth has just broken of at the gum line. I think my biologics may have something to do with it. I'm immunosuppressed and on blood thinners, my dentist is going to love me!

Oh Marydoll
?
Hope you have tissues to hand to stem any bleeding.

Oh and it's snowing heavily!!!

I will need to cancel my hospital appointment tomorrow and get emergency treatment. ...... oh and a mortgage for the dental work. ?

I live in one of the greater London Booroughs, and I have been offered the jab. I am 63 and do not have underlying health conditions.

Group 5 and serious underlying conditions below the age of 64 are being vaccinated now where I am in Wales, and the Welsh Government are saying it’s on track to offer the vaccine to all the top 4 groups by mid February. The same commitment has been made by all the nations, so we will know by about 16th February which nations have delivered and which haven’t (hopefully they all will). What I find really interesting is that the National BBC news always reports lower Wales vaccination figures than the Welsh BBC news and the Public Health Wales website, it’s very strange.

I'm not going to comment on any individual person or how badly they think they are being treated, but its grossly unfair to call the rollout in Scotland a "shambles". A shambles would be nobody getting their vaccines when they expect to, or supplies running out, or half the people not being called, and that's not the case. For everyone who thinks they are hard done by, there are many who are quite happy with the way things are going. In the last 7 days Scotland have vaccinated more people per 100,000 than Northern Ireland or England, but you won't see that in the Daily Telegraph.

I said it was slower. Not a shambles.
But now the army is involved things are picking up in Scotland. Good.
(Just not for you Marydoll which seems bizarre).

The word "shambles" was used. And the army have been involved since 18th January so that little piece of anti-Scottish propaganda can be discounted.

Urmstongran

I said it was slower. Not a shambles.
But now the army is involved things are picking up in Scotland. Good.
(Just not for you Marydoll which seems bizarre).

No one accused you of saying it was a shambles.

Alegrias I will rephrase that. Shambolic for me and some of my very elderly and vulnerable friends, who have been overlooked and had to deal with the mess themselves.

Umpteen texts from the Scottish Govt, saying how they care about my mental health and my GP would be keeping in touch to check on me. Not a peep from him since March.

Numerous texts from Govt shielding service in the last few weeks, saying I would be vaccinated before now, as I am deemed at risk of death from Covid.
Vaccination helpline agent couldn't help me yesterday, as I didn't have a letter!.
There are other Scottish members of GN in the same position.

GP surgery realising today that somehow I had been missed, when I dared to phone, ignoring the message not to ask about vaccines.
Many of my extremely, vulnerable nearly 80 year old friends in this town have been missed, but my healthy sixty year old ones have already been done. Something wrong when people in lower groups in the same town are vaccinated in the hub, before the ECV. The worst thing of all, no-one was able to help them, total lack of information.

I have had better service from Tesco as a shielder, than I have from the Scottish Govt and my GP.
The left hand doesn't know what the right is doing.

Alegrias you no conception of what some extremely vulnerable people in Scotland are experiencing.

Well I feel better after that rant. I will probably regret it in the morning!

Good luck Marydoll, whatever the politics I sincerely hope you are vaccinated this week.

Marydoll I'm sorry you feel badly treated and if you think that then, like I said, I have no comment. But you have no idea what the experiences of my family are and have no right to say I have no conception of anything. How presumptuous.

Alegrias, I wrote a very long post, detailing my experiences of the last year. I withdrew it, because it was too raw and it would look as if I was over dramatising. Unless you, personally have experienced what I have experienced, you don't have any conception.
I will give you one example. Admitted five weeks ago with a heart attack, there was no bed for me in Coronary care. I was moved to a ward, as an interim measure, to free up a room in A&E. The first thing the nurse in charge said was, Shielding, we can't shield you! You are safer in your own bed. So I was sent sent home after a heart attack, when I should have spent four nights in Coronary Care, like the last time, I had a heart attack.
That is one miniscule example of how my health has been compromised.
I could have filled a page with what I have experienced.

I am resilient and stoic, never complained and did everything I was asked to do to save the NHS. but I have witnessed first hand, the shambles and staff at breaking point.
I kept my side of the bargain, unfortunately it wasn't two way.
I'm not sorry for myself, I am angry, very angry!

Good to hear you have finally received an appointment for your vaccine Marydoll You have had such a lot to contend with recently and have done so with such good humour. Your posts are so often uplifting to those who are struggling with their own problems. I can understand your frustrations at having to battle with 'the system' , be kind to yourself and take things easy....don't let the b*****s wear you down.

No doubt I’d think the Scottish vaccination programme was going well if my mum had had both her vaccines weeks ago, like her even older cousin in Hampshire. As it is, the experiences my mum, her friend and Marydoll have had makes you feel like some people been thrown under the bus.

This evening, I see we’re being told to email our political representatives if we have concerns. I’m still waiting for Sturgeon to get back to me.