Covid: Coventry vaccine site apology after people turned away

Health bosses say there is plenty of vaccine available in the area

A Covid vaccination centre has apologised after turning away four people as closing time neared.

Workers at the Coventry and North Warwickshire Cricket Club site did not want to open a new batch of Moderna and waste some of the 20 doses inside.

Caroline Hobday, of Bedworth, said she had seen a woman and son be told they were "too late", more than half an hour before the centre shut at 18:00 GMT.

Health chiefs said they and the centre apologised as this was "unacceptable".

Ms Hobday, who had been at the venue in Binley Road to try to get lateral flow tests for a friend, said the woman and her teenage son had travelled from Warwick to get vaccinated.

"They were told they could wait for a while but if nobody else came they were not opening a new batch of 20 just for two people," she said.

'Won't happen again'

Shortly afterwards, she saw two other people get turned away and suggested perhaps "clearer guidelines" should be introduced advising people to get to sites about an hour before closing.

Dr Sarah Raistrick, who chairs Coventry and Warwickshire's clinical commissioning group, said: "The situation as described wasn't acceptable and the vaccine centre agreed that it wasn't acceptable and they assure me that this won't happen again."

However, she said as there were 20 booster doses of Moderna in a batch at the "very end of the day, this situation may arise. So please do turn up a good 15 or 20 minutes before closing time".

She added the Coventry centre had delivered more than 120,000 vaccines and had plenty still available.

"This is a big enterprise, they love what they do and they're passionate about getting people vaccinated," she said.

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