Looks like it's falling apart at the seams, just as the infection-rate is on the up.
Ho hum...
Archive for the 'COVID-19' Category
All it needed was a dose of common-sense
When a system error at my GP's surgery ended up with me being given that fifth Covid-19 vaccination, just one week after I'd had my fourth, we suspected that it would screw up the various admin/record systems that are associated with the vaccination programme.
True to form, getting a Spring Booster jab has been an ordeal akin to jumping through fiery hoops.
When the Spring Booster programme started, I tried to book online. That failed, so I was advised to call 119 to discuss it with a real person. That person took all of the details and decided that I was due another jab, but one of the Haematology team would have to request it. I emailed the Hambleton Clinic Haemo docs to ask them to make that request.
Three weeks later and nothing had happened, so I asked them again during the telephone consultation that had been booked for 20th April (but which didn't actually happen until 21st April, as they'd missed me off the call-list). The haemo doc agreed that I was due another jab, and said that she'd make the required request ASAP.
That Haemo doc was true to her word... the next morning I was woken by a woman calling from the UHL Booking Office. Yes, the UHL Booking Office which fcuks up the parts that other booking offices can't reach. I explained that I'd had five jabs, she said that I'd meant four. I restated "five", she said that one of them would have been a flu jab. I re-restated "five" and then she imploded, told me that I couldn't possibly have had five jabs already, and said that she'd need to refer back to the requesting Haemo doc.
Monday morning... I contacted the UHL Booking Office again. They still couldn't book me in, but gave me the contact email address for VacHub. Dedicated Vaccination Hub staff. People who actually know what they're talking about. Within the hour I'd sent VacHub the whole story via email, and we spent a few hours exchanging info. The upshot was that after consulting a fair list of people, they couldn't jab me because their "Green Book" guidelines didn't allow it. They'd contact the requesting Haemo doc to inform her.
Well, that Green Book was like a red rag to a bull. Within the hour I'd read it, understood it, and used bits of it in email messages sent back to VacHub. The key bit was that antibody counts wane over time, that waning is not related to how close together the most-recent vaccinations had been given. I argued that they were so close together that they could be considered as one dose. Therefore, the key indicator for being boosted was how long ago that latest combi-dose had been given, and that was three months. The truth about the Green Book guidelines was that rather than not allowing me to have a sixth jab, it had no provision for anyone in my situation - and no go-to reference or process for dealing with anyone not fitting their "normal" profile.
Tuesday dawned, and I was called by the requesting Haemo consultant. She claimed that she'd assumed that I'd had only four jabs, and had based her request on that. When she'd actually checked my record and found that I'd had five jabs, she'd changed her mind. She explained it well, I saw her point of view, and I agreed that I'd given it my best shot and had lost this battle.
But today it all became clear. My use of Green Book reasoning had made some of the VacHub staff think again. They called me to explain. The VacHub staff don't access NHS records directly, they use NIVS (The National Immunisation & Vaccination System), and that system had no record of the GP system-error jab which I had on 28th January. Compare that to my TPP SystmOnline record (GP-based) which records all five jabs. We can't compare it with my proper full NHS record, as I have no access to that. Anyway, the data-flow's not ideal and a lot of it is one-way only - see here.
The upshot was that too many people had too many differing opinions based on which system they had access to. That's the NHS for you!
They decided that another jab would be safe, and less of a risk than a Covid-19 infection/hospitalisation, so they offered me a choice of jab appointments and venues.
Five hours later and I'd been jabbed again. That's SIX. And because the jabbing doctor applied a liberal dose of common-sense - he actually took the time to listen, think, record and discuss - we managed to get my jab-record back on track for any future round of boosters. In theory, there shouldn't be any more fiery hoops. Hats off to the VacHub staff, I say.
Read it and weep, Sarah. You said it couldn't be done...
Crew expendable
Let's just take a minute to think about how this is going to work...
A few months ago the NHS kindly sent me a single PCR Home Testing Kit, because I'm "At Higher Risk".
The idea is that if any of my regular LFTs return a positive result, I then take the Home PCR test ASAP and send the sample to the lab ASAP via either a courier or the Priority Post system. If that test returns a positive result as well, I get a call to hot-foot it to hospital to get drugged up again. The sooner the meds are in, the more effective they'll be. Five days is the limit, after that they'll be of no use to me whatsoever. On the menu are Dexamethasone, Sotrovimab, Paxlovid and Molnupiravir, and if they want me to have another vaccine jab I'm going to push for Novavax because 2xAZ + 3xPfiz won't have worked.
But... if I don't have any LFT kits here because they'll only be issued when I'm symptomatic, how the Hell will I know when to deploy the Home PCR kit?
If it takes a day to get LFT kits, and another day to get the Home PCR sample to the lab, and another day to process it and let me know the result, that's three of my five days wasted, and that's not even factoring-in any weekend interference.
No, it's not going to work.
Jabberwonked yet again
Due to what's being blamed on a system error, the jab-staff at my GP's surgery gave me a FIFTH Covid-19 vaccination today, just one week after I had my fourth.
I told the jab-nurse that I didn't fulfil all of the criteria on the "make sure that..." posters that were stuck onto walls and doors at the surgery, but she was adamant that I wouldn't have been called if I wasn't eligible. I asked her again if she was 100% certain that I was eligible for the jab, she said that she was certain, and before I could finish my next sentence the needle was in and the dose was given. Only after that did she stop being over-zealous for long enough for me to show her my vaccination record cards which clearly showed four jabs, latest one on Friday 21st January. When I showed her the entry for that fourth dose on my GP/SystmOnline patient record, the penny dropped.
The senior nurse has formally reported the incident, and an internal investigation will start on Monday next week.
It's not a system error. The problem is that they have two primary systems, each doing what it was set up to do, but they've not been told to interact with each other in a logical manner because whoever set them up didn't use his/her grey matter. The invitation system doesn't cross-check the patients' records system to determine if due jabs have already been given, it just carpet-bombs the "at higher risk" cohort with text invitations. Then, to make matters worse, when their "make sure that..." poster back-up system prompted me to declare that I was NOT eligible, that declaration was simply dismissed.
The medics and admins believe that their systems are infallible. What happened today is proof that their belief is unfounded.
It's also proof that they didn't fix the very same problem after they called me for my third jab only a few days after LRI had given it to me back in September.
Jabberwonked again
Last month we were utterly confused by my 3rd jab having been logged as the booster jab on my GP's SystmOnline record.
Yesterday my 4th jab went on that record as a booster jab.
Those two entries can't both be correct - the NHS website clearly states that "A 3rd dose and booster dose (4th dose) of the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine is being offered to people aged 12 and over who had a severely weakened immune system when they had their first 2 doses." Leaving aside the poor grammar ("is" should be "are") it's as plain as day that the NHS are saying that, for those who are at higher risk, only the 4th jab is a booster:
Yet my GP's SystmOnline record implies that I've been double-jabbed and then double-boosted, which is farcical.
Something is clearly wrong in somebody's head and/or somebody's system, but there seems to be no way to get it fixed.
I think I'll lose the will to live before Covid-19 gets me.
Ahead of the curve
Got my 4th jab today, but so far it's not featuring on the GOV.UK Coronavirus website vaccinations page which doesn't yet cater for such things.
Maybe they'll catch up with reality before I'm sent for a 5th.
