Covid: Cancellation issues and late letters blamed for missed vaccines

Wales is leading the UK in terms of vaccination roll out

Vaccine letters arriving too late and difficulties cancelling appointments have been blamed by some after health boards said large numbers of people failed to show up for their Covid jabs.

Swansea Bay health board reported 28% of people invited not attending appointments on Monday.

But people said, in some instances, they could not get through when calling to cancel appointments.

The Welsh government said those not attending must tell their health board.

Despite a significant number of people not coming for appointments, health boards have stressed that doses were not wasted as they went to people who were on standby reserve lists.

However, Cwm Taf Morganwwg health board said on Thursday that it was experiencing "technical issues with the reserve list form".

Welsh government figures showed the number of wasted doses was less than 0.1%.

However, a number of people have raised difficulties with cancelling appointments at mass vaccination centres and questioned why an online booking system for appointments - like the one running in England - is not available in Wales.

Darren Hughes, director of the Welsh NHS Confederation, told BBC Radio Wales nobody would "be left behind" in the vaccination roll out.

"If people aren't able to attend their appointments, it's vital that they use the contact details that were contained in the invitation letter which will tell them who to contact so people who are waiting for their vaccinations can get them as soon as possible," he said.

"What we're doing is giving people as much notice as possible."

Sally Palmer, from Cardiff, posted on Facebook: "There are errors in the system. I know of people who have had letters to go to both their GP and a vaccination centre.

"Having gone to the GP, which is local, they have found it impossible to get through on the phone to cancel the other appointment.

"An online system would have been much more efficient."

Jean Jones, from Crickhowell, Powys, made a similar point, saying: "It would help if you could book them at your convenience like in England. With things opening up you need to book around commitments."

Anne Stephenson thought letters not arriving in time might be an issue, saying some were coming the day after the appointment date.

"My husband has his booked for tomorrow," she said.

"No letter has arrived yet, it's only because I rang up to find out if he was on the list and they said yes, he has [an] appointment on Wednesday and a letter is in the post to let him know.

"Good job I phoned on the off-chance."

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One woman said she had tried to contact the booking line to cancel an appointment but was 37th in line and did not have enough phone data to say online.

She also said appointment times should not be "preordained", adding: "Mine clashed with work and after the year we have had, I really cannot afford unpaid time off."

There is no legal obligation for employers to allow staff time off work, whether paid or unpaid, to attend vaccination appointments, although contracts will differ depending on the organisation.

Dr Nia Hughes thinks the personal connection at GP practices has helped attendance there

Dr Nia Hughes, who leads a cluster of practices in the Arfon area of Gwynedd, said there were particular reasons people might be less likely to attend a mass vaccination centre rather than an appointment with their GP.

Her health board, Betsi Cadwaladr, has a no-show rate of 3% which it said had been consistent since immunisations began.

"We think it's due to the automated process of booking that's happening with the mass vaccination clinics and people maybe not being able to contact the health board to cancel, or reschedule appointments, or not having updated contact details with their GP surgeries," Dr Hughes said.

"The GP surgeries have been booking in their patients - it's been a very personal situation, individual telephone contacts, which isn't happening with the mass vaccination programme due to the amount of patients they are calling [in]unfortunately.

"It can't be individual telephone calls. It has to be an automated situation as we're doing."

Clare Boland, practice manager at Fairfield Surgery at Port Talbot's Resource Centre, said staff had been in tears when they heard the number of no-shows happening over the weekend.

Her practice had seen "practically 100%" attendance.

However, she added: "What is worrying is that we're coming to the younger, fitter cohort in the mass vaccination centres and people are not attending.

"Now it's possible that a portion of that is to do with perhaps incorrect data that the health board has for people who tend to be a more transient population, but nevertheless, you can't deny that people are just not turning up for their jabs and that puts us in a very concerning situation moving forward.

"We're at 50% of the population having antibodies. If we're talking about 50% of the population, or around that, don't want to attend for vaccine that's really going to put us in a bad situation for potential third wave."

A Welsh government spokeswoman said: "While there was a higher than usual number of missed vaccination appointments on 28 March, numbers attending have recovered since. On average 30,000 accines are being given out across Wales each day.

"It is important people inform their health board if they are unable to attend their appointment. This allows the appointment to be offered to others in the priority groups and keep wastage of the vaccine to a minimum."