Concern over missed vaccine appointments in Solihull
Please cancel your appointments if you can’t make them. Many people contact us enquiring when it will be their turn to get the vaccine. It’s a shame to hear about wasted appointments and potentially wasted vaccines.
If you book your vaccine with your GP and then decide to visit a mass vaccination site, you still need to cancel with your GP.
Natalie Travers – Healthwatch Solihull Manager
Today the BirminghamMail reported:
A borough GP surgery revealed on social media that 17 people had been booked in on Monday (March 8) but failed to turn
This resulted in the practice having to pull out “all the stops” to contact individuals on a stand-by list and avoid the precious doses going to waste.
It’s understood some people are making separate appointments at Birmingham’s mass-vaccination centres and then failing to cancel with their local doctor.
Given the storage and preparation required for individual doses this can cause quite an issue for health teams.
Sandra Reynolds, practice manager at Hobs Moat Medical Centre, took to a community Facebook group to voice disappointment and urge people not to double-book.
“Even the Oxford AstraZeneca come in little bottles that give a certain number of injections depending on its size, but ranges from 8 to 11,” she said.
“We book exactly the right number of patients to each bottle because once you have punctured the seal of the bottle, it can’t be shoved back in the fridge.
“So if you have an appointment booked with us at Richmond [Medical Centre – where local jabs are being delivered] please please keep it.”