General Chat

OH and I have just received emails with appointments for the winter vaccines. NHS Scotland finally seem to have got their act together, as it is just along the road and not 50 miles away, as has happened in the past. They are both at the same time, which is very convenient.

That's good that they are local and at the same time.

Not heard anything yet, but our GP's surgery is a hub for the area, when it comes to vaccines and they have it down to a fine art.
Flu vaccines are by notification of a half / hour slot on a set-aside day, usually a Saturday and several people will be given the same time frame and then it's a case of 'first come, first served' and we we all get streamed off to one of the many rooms in use that day staffed by nurses, retired doctors and anyone suitable who is available. There's 2 staff per room, one to administer the vaccine, while the other logs it onto the system for the correct patient's notes.

Covid vaccines we book ourselves in online and turn up at the surgery, at that time.

For both, we go in one door, through to treatment room, then out another door, while a 'caller' is alerting the next one in the queue.
Usually in the surgery for about 3 minutes maximum.

Our surgery seems to operate the same as yours Gwyn but we have not heard anything yet.

OH had a message from the Coeliac Society which said the flu jabs wouldn’t happen until October. Our surgery would normally have the first round in September.

( Coeliacs are now eligible for a free NH S flu jab)

Having been told by a friend that the jabs are available now I phoned our surgery earlier this week and booked us in for mid Oct. The same friend just told me that there is another jab available ( for over 75's ) giving protection from a particularly nasty respiratory illness so I just rang again and we are booked in for that on 18th Sept. Presumably countrywide and not just Cornwall so may be worth asking.

The adverts for the RSV jab is for 75's to 79 ( and pregnant women I think).

Our surgery is changing its computer system to the retched email/triage system - so don't think they will organise the jabs until that is complete

My husband is 84 but they quite happily gave him an appointment for this new jab.

Our surgery is also going onto to this infuriating system - husband rang yesterday for an appointment and was told to fill in the new form online. He said he couldn't as computer keeps crashing due to 4ft thick walls so they said they could fill in the form for him then and there over the phone if he gave them all the details.

He did - it took 15 mins so that really reduced the waitiing time for phone calls to be answered which is supposed to be the aim of this new system! I give up!!!

The daft thing is that they say it is what the patients want :-S :-S

No.

There is a long explanation on the practice website giving details ( we can phone in and get them to do the form or pop in and get them to do it ) but they don’t say how long you may have to wait for a reply. We are told we can opt for how to get the reply - well it will have to be the land line as we can hear it around the house.

How will people who can’t have phones at work cope?

Invite came today for a flu jab on the set aside Saturday between 8.30 and 9.30 a.m and in the same post an invite to make an appointment for the RSV one, as apparently I am an 'at risk' patient....??

Anyone know what sort of gaps there should be between these and bearing in mind there will be an invite for a Covid one soon?

I realise you are not all medical. This is just to give me some idea, when I contact them.

Had my RSV jab on Monday. No after-effects - not even a sore arm.

No mention yet of flu or Covid jabs (NHS Highland).

You're too young! We're NHS Highland as well, and we're over 80, so too old for this lot of RSV but in the first batch of flu/covid.

Kent seems to be ahead as the start date for the National flu/ covid jabs is the 3rd October,

OH and I are both booked in for the flu and Covid jabs which are being given together. It is odd because it was 30 th April when we had a Covid booster, yet we are to have another one. I think that I had better check that out. We should be eligible for the RSV one, but haven’t heard anything about that

Not heard about the Covid ones yet.
I've just checked back Linda and see that my last booster was 12th May.

I have my covid and flu vacc booked now for 26 October, just about 6 months from the last booster.

Hopefully our surgery will send out invitations soon, but as they are changing over to the email only system I am nit holding out much hope.

I checked on line and over a certain age, you are eligible for a Covid booster every six months which presumably is why we are having one along with the flu jab

I am booked for both on the 5th.

OH always gets the message first so immediately switched my phone on, nothing happened. So this afternoon I went to the NHS app and found the message there.

Each time we have a jab our surgery books the next one straightaway. We had our last Covid one on 24th April and before we left the surgery they had given us both a booking of 9th November for Covid and Flu. It saves me having to remember to ring up or go online. These are all done at our local surgery, about 10 minutes walk away.

I missed mine at first because it was on the NHS app usually I’t has been an ordinary message.