Western Daily Press (Saturday)

‘Don’t ask GP to bump you up the vaccine list’

- IMOGEN MCGUCKIN news@westerndai­lypress.co.uk

ABATH GP has urged people not to ring her surgery and ask to be “bumped up” the list for the coronaviru­s vaccine.

Dr Karen Prees, 54, who has worked at the Batheaston Medical Centre for 25 years, said recently it had been “inundated with calls”.

“People are worried and anxious and obviously they all have their own story but they are not really aware that everyone is doing it.

“The receptioni­sts are getting quite stressed because not being able to do anything is stressful for them.”

The surgery on Coalpit Road is part of a primary care network (PCN) of three practices delivering the vaccine to the over-75s.

Dr Prees acknowledg­ed that most of the people ringing up had genuine concerns. However, she said the surgery had to “stick to the national rules”.

“We cannot bump people up the list. We are not at liberty to make those decisions for people.

“People who have got health conditions are understand­ably feeling that they need to be put higher up the list, and people on cancer treatments are understand­ably really concerned.

“They are in the next cohort and we are getting there, but we haven’t got there yet,” she explained.

The GP also said that married couples, where only one person was over 75, had found it difficult to understand why one of them had been called for the vaccine and the other had not.

Likewise, couples where one partner has a health condition will be called at different times.

Dr Prees said: “We understand people’s concerns. The news reports are so, so worrying and they might have someone who is really ill from the virus.

“But we want to really reassure people that the practice lists are being checked and checked again and they won’t be missed.”

She also mentioned that some residents liked to ring the surgery “just for a chat with the receptioni­st” and that she did not want to discourage this.

“The last thing we want to do is to make people feel unwelcome, but they are completely overwhelme­d and it’s taking their time away from the medical issues,” she said.

Dr Prees took to Facebook on Thursday to appeal to the people of Batheaston.

She wrote: “I very politely ask you not to call the surgery with your questions as to why you or a loved one have not yet received an appointmen­t, or to plead your case for having a greater priority.

“Each of these calls takes valuable time away from the patient care that we are attempting to deliver alongside the vaccinatio­n programme, and our reception team are really struggling to cope with the additional pressure.”

The post has reached 180 reactions so far and was well-received by the online Batheaston community, who thanked the doctor for her work.

We want to reassure people that the practice lists are being checked and they won’t be missed DR KAREN PREES

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