Left out in the cold: OAPS’ wait for jabs
ELDERLY LINE UP FOR 90 MINUTES IN FREEZING WEATHER
LONG queues built up outside a Nottingham Covid-19 vaccine centre as elderly people waited in the cold to get their jabs.
They waited in the queue outside the centre at the University of Nottingham’s King’s Meadow Campus off Lenton Lane on Saturday.
An eyewitness, who was there taking a family member for their jab, told the Post they had to wait outside for an hour and a half in freezing temperatures.
On Saturday afternoon, Councillor Sally Longford, deputy leader of Nottingham City Council, tweeted: “Well @ NHSNOTTSCCG I’m hearing our elderly people have been queuing outside King’s Meadow Vaccination Centre this afternoon, in this weather!
“Some gave up and went home. Please get this sorted before tomorrow.”
Signs had been put up in the window near to the centre telling residents they would be seen in order of appointment time, not arrival time.
They were asked to wait in their vehicles until the times of their appointments.
Covid-19 jabs are now being carried out at multiple sites in Nottinghamshire as the biggest ever vaccination programme continues.
The programme has now expanded to include over-70s and clinically extremely vulnerable people as the county continues vaccinating the top four priority groups.
In total, 84,336 vaccinations have been carried out to people in the top four priority groups in Nottinghamshire.
The county’s health officials admit they “have not got it right all of the time” in the rollout of the vaccine, but plans will not be altered.
Nottinghamshire still has the lowest number of over-80s given the second dose of the vaccine – 29 people (0.1 percent) as of January 24.
The number of over-80s who have received the first dose is currently 37,140 (or 74.6 percent) and, while this has increased, it still remains the tenth lowest figure in England.
Comparatively, Gloucestershire has given the first vaccine dose to 34,061 people over 80 (or 91.1 percent of this age group).
Derbyshire has done the same to 82.3 percent of all over80s, Leicestershire and Rutland 76.6 percent and Lincolnshire 80 percent.
The Post has contacted the Nottinghamshire NHS Clinical Commissioning Group for comment.