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65 people failed to turn up for their second jab at one Banbury clinic yesterday
26/08/2021
Banbury Cross Health Centre is getting on average 10-15% of people wasting vaccination appointments by not turning up
A shocking number of people are failing to attend their second COVID vaccination appointments and are simply not turning up. At the Banbury Cross Health Centre by the middle of yesterday afternoon 65 people had missed their slots during the day. The vaccination clinic had been expecting around 350 people.
The appointment slots and staff resources are simply wasted as those unable to attend are not cancelling.
This week 17-year-olds were able to receive their first vaccination dose, but only a limited number of appointments are available as the main bulk of the appointments are taken for pre-booked second jabs.
Banbury Cross Health Centre is making available vaccination slots for between 300-350 people most days, but on average between 40 and 60 of those don’t turn up. Other health centres are experiencing a similar problem.
Nicola Putt, Covid Vaccination Project Manager at Banbury Cross Health Centre said: “At the moment we’re running second dose clinics every day. They’re fully booked. We’re providing the vaccinators, the pharmacy team and the administrators to record all those vaccinations.
“We are finding day after day we’re having 10-15% of the patients just don’t turn up.”
The health centre has been offering vaccinations since last December. From May their appointments were made available on the national booking service so people from the area who aren’t patients at the surgery were offered a chance of being vaccinated there.
People making an appointment using the national booking service (using the 119 phone number or the website) book their first appointment and the follow up second appointment for 8 weeks later at same time.
The clinic no-shows are not informing the health centre that they won’t be able to attend – they simply don’t turn up. Nicola acknowledges this could be because they have made their appointment via the national system but urges people to make the effort to let them know if they can’t attend an appointment.
She said: “If they’re not able to attend because they are on holiday, ill or had COVID (which means they’re not allowed to have their second dose yet), we need them to just cancel the appointment. It frees it up for someone else and we don’t have to prepare the vaccine and have as many vaccinators and administrators ready.”
Staff are doing their best to ensure the vaccine isn’t wasted by preparing it during the day based on numbers that have attended.
Nicola said: “During the afternoon I’m constantly having to look at how many people haven’t turned up and in the last hour have to take the decision as to whether we open another vial as we don’t want to waste it.”
From the start of this week 17 year olds have been able to receive their first vaccine dose. A number of youngsters have already visited the Banbury Cross Health Centre. The vaccination team would like to be able to offer more appointments for this age group but can’t because technically they are at full capacity.
There isn’t one specific age group that isn’t turning up for their second dose of the vaccine. Nicola said: “There’s all sorts of different people who aren’t coming and I’m sure they all have different reasons – whether they are on holiday or they have forgotten – but the message we’re trying to get out to people is please look to see when your second dose is booked for and please come and have it.
“Its important you do have it to protect yourself against the virus, but if you’re not able to make it please cancel your appointment and book for another day.”
Those that are missing their second appointments are generally people who had their first dose towards the end of June.
From the end of September a number of activities, such as going to nightclubs, will be restricted to those that are fully vaccinated.
Those not turning up to receive their second dose are warned that the vaccination clinics will not be available for much longer. Banbury Cross Health Centre is currently running 10 second dose clinics per week, but by September will be doing just 2 clinics per week.
Nicola said: “We’re starting to plan for flu clinics and COVID boosters so these second dose clinics aren’t going to run indefinitely.”
The health centre is urging people to check the date of their appointment and to turn up. If, for whatever reason, they can’t attend please cancel the appointment.
Published: by Banbury FM Newsteam