A PENSIONER who missed two GP vaccination clinics due to cancelled flights and travel quarantine says he has been left frustrated by the “inflexibility” of the appointments system for the immunisation hubs.
Hugh Walker, 77, lives between Glasgow and Taragona in Spain, where his partner - who is Catalan - works.
He had been due to fly back to Scotland in mid-January, but the flights were cancelled and he rebooked to fly back to Glasgow via London on February 15.
As a result, Mr Walker, a retired further education worker, was unable to attend the first over-75s Covid vaccination clinic run by his GP surgery on February 12.
His journey back to Scotland was then plunged into confusion due to hotel quarantine arrangements which took effect from February 15.
The UK Government had announced that it would be following a ‘red list’ country protocol which limited managed isolation to passengers arriving from 33 countries where certain Covid variants were more prevalent.
READ MORE: Hotel quarantine to cover just 8% of flights into Scotland
In contrast, Scotland was applying the rule universally to all international arrivals, who would be required to pay at least £1,750 for 11 nights accommodation - longer if they tested positive at any stage - including meals, transport and testing.
Up until the launch date, the Scottish Government had also pushed - ultimately unsuccessfully - for the UK Government to quarantine all international arrivals due to fly on to Scotland at quarantine hotels in England first.
“The weekend before it was impossible to find out from the Scottish Office or the Home Office what would happen if I arrived at Heathrow and then flew to Glasgow - nobody knew,” said Mr Walker.
He cancelled the flight and rebooked for February 22, self-isolating at his home in Glasgow for 10 days on his return.
However, this coincided with his GP surgery’s second vaccination clinic, meaning he was unable to attend again.
After completing home quarantine, Mr Walker - who lives a 25 minute walk from the NHS Louisa Jordan, in Partick - visited the hub on March 5 to ask if he could be vaccinated there instead, given his age.
READ MORE: Edinburgh scientists crack genetic puzzle behind Crohn's disease
He hoped that they might be able to take his contact details and phone him if they had any spare vaccines, but was told he needed an appointment letter and that it would take more than three weeks to add his details to the national recall list.
His GP surgery’s next clinic is on March 27.
“I’m not complaining at all about the vaccination programme - it’s all my fault for coming back from Spain,” said Mr Walker.
“But the more people talk about the horrors of Covid, the more you want to protect yourself.
“[The Louisa Jordan] is just down the road from me - I could go at any time of the day or night.
“I thought they’d just take some contact details - I cannot believe it really.
“It just seems needlessly inflexible and bureaucratic.”
READ MORE: 'Small number' of new Covid cases linked to Rangers celebrations
The latest data shows that 99.6 per cent of people in Scotland aged 75 to 79 have had at least one Covid vaccine dose, and 2.9% have had their second dose.
The rollout has been linked to dramatic reductions in the risk of death and serious illness from Covid among the oldest Scots who were prioritised for vaccination.
A spokesman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said it had now arranged an appointment from Mr Walker after being contacted by the Herald, and apologised for his delay.
The spokesman added: "Unfortunately, it is not possible to attend a vaccination centre without an appointment, as there would be no way that staff could verify patient details.
"To date, we have administered more than 400,000 vaccinations dosed across Greater Glasgow and Clyde with excellent uptake within priority groups.
"We would urge everyone to attend vaccination appointments when offered and, if they think they should have received an appointment by now, to call the vaccination helpline for help– the number is 0800 030 8013."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel