Covid-19 booster jab issues defended by Worcester City Primary Care Network

Recently, patients hoping to receive their winter Covid-19 booster jab have been met with long queues or cancelled appointments. 

Worcester City Primary Care Network (City PCN), which is an alliance of 10 GP surgeries in the city, has apologised to patients who think the booster rollout 'isn't good enough.' 

Nicolette Neville-Lee, 75, said she was turned away from her booked appointment at St. Wulstan's Building, Deansway on September 14 because the centre had run out of vaccines.

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LAST YEAR: around 200 people waiting patiently in the queue which stretched from the Grandstand down (Image: LAST YEAR: around 200 people waiting patiently in the queue which stretched from the Grandstand down)

Despite the issues patients are facing, City PCN has said people will be given several opportunities to receive their booster jab in the following months. 

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The community hub has been scheduled to run five days a week between September and December and there will also be several pop-ups taking place. 

A spokesperson from City PCN said: "We’re aware of the concerns raised by local residents about vaccine availability in the city this year - and we do appreciate that there have been long queues at our local community hubs.

"We’d like to apologise to any patients who feel this isn’t good enough, as we work incredibly hard to plan and manage our vaccine rollouts, and it’s always disappointing when members of our community feel they don’t meet their expectations.

"However, the site at Heart of Worcestershire College is not part of Worcester City PCN, but is instead managed by a provider from outside the city, and who are not part of our network.

LAST YEAR: Record breaking day for covid booster jabs after first Omicron case in county (Image: LAST YEAR: Record breaking day for covid booster jabs after first Omicron case in county)

"This is leading to a significant amount of confusion for local residents, we have had several instances this week in which patients have been diverted from the HoW College site to Community Hubs which have already reached full capacity.

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"We appreciate this is frustrating for patients, but we hope you’ll understand we too are disappointed by the confusion this is causing - particularly given the incredible success we saw last year at our own Worcester Racecourse site, and at St Peter’s Baptist Church, which was run by our colleagues at SW Healthcare."