Have you?
What a sad, small life it has become when our time is taken up with booking appointments and attending them. Not really, because we have lots of interests and not enough time to pursue them all.
Howsomever, (which I had never realised was a ‘proper’ word, and have just discovered is archaic, a bit like me) a few weeks ago we were ‘invited’ to book appointments for annual jabs, or are they six-monthly now? Anyway, being obedient little citizens, we proceeded to thread our way through the booking system and nabbed a couple of spots in early October. Yes, the site informed us that all was in order, or alles in ordnung, as Barry says, proving he still remembers some German. Job done, sit back and relax!
At the
end of last week, we received another invitation from the NHS to book
appointments for annual jabs! Cue double-takes and murmurs of disbelief, as we
didn’t wish to be doubly jabbed! On checking, we discovered that our appointments
had not been registered or noted or whatever is supposed to happen to them.
That’s not strictly true, for when the very pleasant and helpful lady Barry had
contacted checked a little lot deeper, she discovered that mine had been
recorded, but Barry’s hadn’t. Hey ho!
Barry and the lady had a most enjoyable conversation and gentle rant about the failings of the NHS administration and the inability of the left hand to even acknowledge the existence of the right hand.
We often experience a sense of déjà vu and I’m afraid it is rearing its head in my blog, for which, apologies.
So, have you, and if you haven’t, why haven’t you? My children (odd to call them that when they’re mature adults) pay for their jabs, though one son-in-law doesn’t pay because he’s asthmatic. I don’t think middle daughter will have the jabs – she responds very poorly to them, and they make her quite ill. It’s a toss-up – have the jab and feel lousy for a few days, or contract the illness and feel lousy for a few days.
There are currently two common strains of Covid, Nimbus and Stratus, the majority of reported cases being the latter. As ever, if you are suffering from any respiratory illness, be selfish and keep it to yourself.
Now, wasn’t
that a cheerful read?
Booking these is on my list too...it's a hassle but I have a newborn in my family and one coming in December. I do not want to take any chances.
ReplyDeleteVery wise, and congratulations. Little ones bring such joy,
DeleteIt must be a bit disheartening for some NHS staff to constantly have to deal with 'administrative repairs'. It isn't great here with receiving multiple notifications about the same thing, and trying to remember if it was an email, a text message or a letter.
ReplyDeleteI think the multitude of ways of communicating have added to the confusion. Most people are doing their best but are floundering.
DeleteI get my annual jabs, covid and flu, every year near the end of April. With regard to your daughter I venture to suggest a covid shot would be better than having the disease, if all the stories about "long covid" are to be believed with people suffering for years after.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, and she knows that, so it's up to her.
DeleteI also had a second invitation to get my flu jab, on checking my first appointment did not register, strange, we will gave ours on Saturday.
ReplyDeleteIn a sense, I'm glad it happened to you, too. Now, we don't feel 'got at.'
DeleteI'm about to, they only opened the bookings here yesterday.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
DeleteI am having my flu jab tomorrow. No Covid booster on offer.
ReplyDeleteYou're too young, JayCee! 😊
DeleteIsn't a "jab" a kind of punch in boxing? I guess that Barry McGuigan has received a few of them from you over the years. If you are referring to the inoculation kind of "jab", I received my flu vaccine yesterday but as I understand it, if I want the latest COVID booster I have to pay for it as I am under 75 and in pretty good health.
ReplyDeleteThe only black eye he ever got was from me, and I wasn't even trying!
DeleteI think it is crazy that younger people aren't offered covid vaccinations. My children coughed up £100 each, and travelled 10 miles to find a pharmacy offering them. A friend in her THIRD year of long covid, still not able to work properly, isn't eligible. She caught covid again a few months ago, set her back considerably. She can't afford a vaccination so friends clubbed together and paid for it.
ReplyDeleteWe are eligible and booked in for later this month and also for flu vaccinations.
A Very Good Post in my view, on an important topic!
Your friend should receive a Covid jab as of right. Of course, young people should receive it - they are the future.
DeleteI'm with middle daughter - the disease made me less ill for a shorter time than the vaccine did. I refuse any further COVID jabs after the last one knocked my immune system sideways for weeks.
ReplyDeleteThat was her experience, too.
DeleteI have never had the flu shot and only the first and one follow up on the covid one.
ReplyDeleteIt is a personal choice always, as it should be.
DeleteWe are just looking over the schedule for getting our Jabs in the upcoming weeks. The health clinic offers them and a half dozen locations around our county. You just have to go and get in line and wait your turn.
ReplyDeleteI hope you don't have to queue for too long. 😊
DeleteSo the new way of making appointments goes bottoms up, or so it seems. It's likely that the invisible hand of AI trying to be clever has foundered on this;) Glad others are wondering why we had to have two sets of jabs. I am going to the first appointment and will demand to see the record on the computer.
ReplyDeleteTo begin with, we had to carry a card to indicate which jab we'd had and when. That seems to have gone by the board now. What next?
DeleteI'm certainly thinking about it - I've had both the flu and Covid before and they were both really horrible. I think I'll probably have to pay for them and cost will factor in as I think they are talking about doing away with them for what our insurance will include. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteI'm just waiting for the 'anti-death' jab . . .
DeleteTony knowledge I have never before heard ‘howsomever’ but I like it. They haven’t rolled out our jabs yet, but they will, and I will gladly roll up my sleeve. I’ve never paid for them at any age.
ReplyDeleteIt's all a bit of a mess here . . . so nothing much changes. 🤣😂
DeletePerhaps not the most cheerful, but helpful.
ReplyDeleteJabbed up the ying yang against every conceivable threat, apart from death!
DeleteI've booked my flu jab and may enquire about paying for a covid one.
ReplyDeleteIf you're susceptible, it may be wise.
DeleteI love red tape! It helps me build patience. LOL
ReplyDeleteI am currently getting the hepatitis vaccines. It's a series of three shots. Does that count?
Anything to keep the nasties at bay is worthwhile.
ReplyDeleteApparently in Wales I was old enough for covid and flu jabs but in England I'm not, which I find frustrating . Hey ho - I suppose I could buy a flu jab but somehow when you're in your sixties and worked for donkeys years for the NHS it's annoying. Moan over.
ReplyDeleteAlison in Devon x
That is a slap in the face, isn't it?
DeleteIn America some States made it so difficult to get our Jabs due to the current Leadership, so it was logistically changed every Week and a big burden to both the Healthcare System and people wanting to get Vaxxed. The Man and I ended up with three Jabs each when FINALLY we were authorized to receive them... and our Pharmacist pushed it thru before the Rules changed yet again. *Whew* I'd rather have the risk of some minor side effects of a Jab than whatever it's protecting us from. Luckily our Insurances covered it so we didn't have to pay... at least for now anyway, don't know what the Future will hold?
ReplyDeleteIt must be mighty difficult keeping up in your country. I'm glad you finally got your jabs.
DeleteI am actually in the waiting room of my doctors office.. waiting to get my flu shot! woo hoo
ReplyDeleteGood. I hope there are no after-effects. 😊
DeleteOH qualifies for both Covid and flu jabs as he's over 75. I can only get the flu jab on the NHS, but after a lot of phoning around different pharmacies am booked for my Covid jab next Tuesday BUT I will have to pay £98 for it. Xx
ReplyDeleteIt seems that the amount payable varies from place to place. It's not exactly encouraging us to take responsibility for our health, is it?
DeleteWe are having the jabs, but it's not nearly as complicated here as it is in the UK. We can just have them done at our dispensing chemist's, no need to book and they're free! xxx P.S. I do get your rant!
ReplyDeleteIt seems that most things medical in Europe are far better managed than in UK. So, of course we left the EU! I still can't believe we did that . . .
DeleteI get flu jabs through work, and I always get them, every year. I haven't been invited for a Covid jab yet, because I'm under 60 and thus I think too young (!). But if the NHS offers me one, I'll take it!
ReplyDeleteIt's always sensible to take advantage of freebies. After all, we don't get many. You'll be able to have free eye tests soon, unless you already do because of a family history of glaucoma.
DeleteMy doctor comes out to me, so I've had all the jabs that I needed.
ReplyDeleteWow! Home visits - almost unheard of in UK, unless you're very ill and incapable of locomotion.
DeleteTime for shots sigh -Christine cmlk79.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteThey're over in a flash, though not good if you're needle-phobic, I suppose.
DeleteIt's the time of year for vaccinations or jabs!
ReplyDeleteWhatever you prefer to call them :)
All the best Jan
All part of the turning year . . .
DeleteI've been invited for a free flu jab as a teacher but I don't know whether to have it or not (it's more likely I just won't get around to booking... It's a bit like trying to remember to book the dentist!). Hope I don't react to it!
ReplyDeleteThe NHS booking is pretty tricky!
I would if I were you. All those children coughing and spluttering over you. I know you build up immunity, but it's not a guarantee of freedom from disease.
DeleteI am vehemently in favour of jabs. Bear, a healthy young man, was so poorly with covid last month. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. I am absolutely in favour of vaccinations for everything!
ReplyDeleteFunny story, my late mother got me vaccinated against smallpox but wouldn't agree to a vaccination against rubella, so at the age of 39 I got the MMR. I had already had the measles jab back in the 1960s when it first came out and mother had to pay privately for it, and I'd had mumps, which was a deeply unpleasant experience, but they didn't do the rubella vaccine as single so I had to have the lot. That was three lots of minor reactions from the vaccines spread out over around a month and I was unimpressed. I'm still not autistic, just bloody minded and still baffled at my mother.
Clearly, your mother didn't take paracetamol while pregnant with you. 😉People are sometimes strangely resistant to vaccinations in UK, yet think little of vaccinations against yellow fever and other nasties it they want to travel 'abroad.'
DeleteWe had shots at the beginning of the week. Once 65 we don't have to pay anything for our medical because the government covers most of it and the rest is covered because Gregg was in the services for 20 years plus (not sure how long that will last though). We don't have to make an appointment. We just walk into the pharmacy section of our supermarket, put our names down, we are seen almost immediately by a pharmacist (though would add that we try to go when it's not so busy, usually early in the morning and there is no waiting line). We have been doing it this way for years and never had a problem. If we have a doctor's appointment, then they will give us the jabs, like husband who got his at his annual check-up a few weeks ago. I had a while to go so decided to get them out of the way.
ReplyDeleteI must say the US looks after its retired military much better than the UK.
DeleteI admire how you turn the muddle of missed appointments into such an engaging tale
ReplyDeleteYou often hear people in UK say, 'You've got to laugh' and it really does help to try and see the humour in things.
DeleteBecause Fall classes at the museum has started and the building is now crowded especially with the little germ spreaders, we went last week to get both flu and Covid. One in each arm. I always have a bit of reaction. Feel like I'm coming down with something, fatigue, and body aches. This lasted 3 days. I was fine to teach my Tuesday classes especially since the night class is in the same studio as a child class just before mine.
ReplyDeleteOh and since our Center for Disease Control is taking directives from a buffoon ,the CDC is not recommending vaccines. However the governor of Massachusetts where I live signed an order that all Massachusetts insurance companies will pay for the vaccines and make them available to all those who want them.
DeleteWell, that's a blessing and there are very few of those in your country at present. We watch and listen open-mouthed to the rubbish that is spouted by those in power!
DeleteThank you for visiting my blog and leaving a comment, yes i do exoect that the loverly large veg is only grown for show and wouldnt taste very good. Ive only ever had one, (felt under pressure to do so) refused all others and considering everything that's coming to light about them I'm happy with my decision.
ReplyDeleteIt is a personal choice and right that it is so.
DeleteI am strictly against all jabs, I only agreed to the Corona and got 5 shots over the time. Now that is enough. I refuse all others, I had seen twice that elderly people got the flew and very heavy AFTER a jab ! Now the propose me the last Covid called Frankenstein (what a joke) ! I don't know yet if I agree to Frankenstein or not. I never had the Covid, flu or other diseases for which jabs exist, so I won't wake up my body !
ReplyDeleteI'm rather of the 'just in case' camp. Anyway, I couldn't stand the earache I would get if I didn't have the vaccinations.
DeleteMy niece and I carpool to yoga. She was having trouble with her allergies when we went on Tuesday. 'Tis the season. Mine began acting up later on. She messaged me that she wasn't going to yoga. She was too congested. I sympathized. My allergies were getting out of hand too. She mentioned that her husband had it too, so it did not appear to be allergies after all. This morning, I could not make myself get out of bed. I was just so tired. They both tested positive for covid.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't appear to be terrible. I will test in the morning.
I hope you're feeling better now. It's just as well you didn't go to yoga.
DeleteI’ve already gotten my Covid jab. I have to wait two weeks for the flu vaccine because of an osteoporosis infusion. I had earlier this week. We in the United States have the problem that CJ Kennedy above described fortunately, my state is permitting us to get the Covid vaccine without a prescription.
ReplyDeleteIt's such a lottery in your country, isn't lt?
DeleteWe still wear masks when we go out. We're waiting on our two jabs of flu and COVID until next month. We have a trip scheduled in February and want our protection to be as strong as can be.
ReplyDeleteIt makes sense to take every precaution when planning to be away from home and prey to 'foreign bugs .'
ReplyDeleteHi Janice - two to be done on the 27th ... just need to get my Shingles one, as it's due to be renewed ... I'll be fixed up shortly - cheers Hilary
ReplyDeleteI thought the shingles jab was a once in a lifetime one. Ooer!
ReplyDelete