NHS website hit by Covid booster rush
Online booking system struggle with numbers after PM’s broadcast
THE NHS booking website was hit by problems on Monday as thousands rushed to book a Covid booster jab.
People attempting to book a vaccine appointment online were met with error messages or warnings of long queues as the NHS website struggled to process the numbers taking up the offer of a vaccine.
Households trying to order boxes of lateral flow tests ahead of plans to make close contacts of Covid cases test daily from this week were also experiencing problems trying to request a batch – with some Twitter users reporting the website said it had run out of home test kits and to come back later.
The Government began expanding the booster roll-out programme to everyone aged 18 and over in the UK as of Monday, after Boris Johnson issued a stark warning over the rapid spread of the Omicron variant in a nationwide broadcast on Sunday night.
The Prime Minister has said he intends to have offered a jab to every adult in England by New Year’s Eve, but warns that routine appointments or some procedures may have to be cancelled to create space in the system.
Patients wanting a third jab – or those who wish to take up the offer of a first or second coronavirus vaccine – should be able to book through the website nhs.uk using their NHS number or personal details.
But since early on Monday morning error messages warning of ‘technical difficulties’ were repeatedly appearing on the booking page, or people were entering a queue only for the booking system to crash.
At one point shortly before 10am on Monday the website said there were more than 10,000 waiting in a virtual queue before the online page timed out.
The information on the site has been updated to welcome everyone over the age of 30 for an online appointment – alternatively walk-in clinics are also available to those over 18 willing and able to stand and wait their turn.
Monday’s move came after the target for giving every adult a booster jab was brought forward by a month over fears of a “tidal wave of Omicron” that could cause “very many deaths”.
Anyone aged 30 and over was able to book a booster appointment to get a jab from Monday, while those aged 18 to 29 were able to book a booster from yesterday (Wednesday).
The Prime Minister, in a pre-recorded address to the nation on Sunday, said Britain “must urgently reinforce our wall of vaccine protection” as he set the new deadline of jabbing everyone over 18 by the new year.
He said scientists had discovered that two doses of a vaccine is “simply not enough” to prevent the spread of the new variant and that, without a lightning speed mass booster campaign, the NHS could be overwhelmed.
Mr Johnson said: “To hit the pace we need, we’ll need to match the NHS’s best vaccination day so far – and then beat that day after day. This will require an extraordinary effort.
“And as we focus on boosters and make this new target achievable, it will mean some other appointments will need to be postponed until the new year.
“But if we don’t do this now, the wave of Omicron could be so big that cancellations and disruptions, like the loss of cancer appointments, would be even greater next year.”
The mission to administer millions more jabs by December 31 will see 42 military planning teams deployed across every health region.
The highest number of vaccinations reported in one day in the UK was 844,285 on March 20, 2021 – equivalent to vaccinating the entire population of Liverpool in one day, according to the Government website.