STAFF’S TEARS AT NO-SHOWS

FRESH PLEA TO ATTEND VACCINE APPOINTMENTS

A HEALTHCARE worker who is helping with the vaccination programme in Swansea Bay where nearly 500 people failed to turn up for their jab in one day has spoken about how the no-shows have reduced staff to tears.

On Monday, more than a quarter of those scheduled to have the Covid vaccine across the health board region failed to turn up. In one day alone, out of 1,750 appointments, 492 did not attend their appointment at the mass vaccination centres.

Clare Boland, who is a GP practice manager in Port Talbot, described how news of the no-shows had left staff in tears, and she pleaded with people to call and cancel their appointments if they can’t make it so others can be offered the chance of having a vaccination.

“I have had staff in tears this week over the announcement of noshows,” she told BBC Radio Wales. “We have had 100% the whole way through, but there seems to be a problem with people not attending mass vaccination, people are not attending.

“A portion of that is incorrect data because younger people are more transient, but in many cases people are just not turning up for the jabs and that is very concerning for the whole population moving forward.

“You are talking about people who have been giving their absolute all for 15 months now. To see them upset and frightened because they are on the frontline and looking to the day when life will get back to some sort of normality is not fair.

“They are really starting to worry about these people who are not turning up when we have worked so hard to make sure everyone is vaccinated.

“We are really concerned that people will think they are ‘alright Jack.’ It is not a good scenario moving forward.”

There is concern about the hundreds who have failed to turn up especially after an online booking system allowing people aged 40 to 49 to book themselves a Covid19 vaccine in another area crashed due to overwhelming demand.

Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board set up a reserve list for people in this age group following a “slight increase” in no-shows among those over 50 at their mass vaccination centres.

But the health board was forced to apologise on Tuesday after the online system stopped working.

The practice manager also talked about the importance of the vaccines. She added: “We have been told that in every precious vial of vaccine we have either eight or 10 doses, and to get one extra precious dose out of that gives us a lot of pride.

“People are getting complacent. The sunshine is here and I do think that people think that we do have a vaccine the situation is behind them. We have been working every single day and the reason we fight so hard to vaccinate is the amount of loss that we have seen.

“It has been 15 months of really hard work and what we really want is to have full services back for our terminally ill patients, our cancer patients our people we want to visit in the community.”

And Clare had one last plea for everyone: “Don’t just not turn up, please ring and give other people the opportunity to come in and have that vaccine.”

You are talking about people who have been giving their absolute all for 15 months now. To see them upset and frightened because they are on the frontline and looking to the day when life will get back to some sort of normality is not fair - Clare Boland, who is a GP practice manager in Port Talbot