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Make a call to 119 for a vaccination appointment.
There is currently not access for carers on the system.****
Hi. Still waiting to hear from anyone regarding my wife receiving a vaccine. She is in group 6 and I’m assuming I will get the jab too being her carer.
I’ve just looked on our GP surgery website where there is this statement -
When it is the right time people will receive an invitation to come forward.
For most people this will be a letter, either from their GP or the national NHS. This letter will include all the information you will need to book appointments, including your NHS number.
Please do not contact the NHS to get an appointment until you get this letter.
I’m 69, in Group 6, had a letter asking me to make an appointment, also enquiring if I had any special need for access etc., which I don’t. So I’m happy to go 10 miles away to a pharmacy attached to a hospital. I know that a more local hospital is a vaccination centre, but I wasn’t offered that in the next few days. It’s possibly got more space for those with special needs than the pharmacy I’m going to. Hopefully as I’m flexible it will give the more frail people a shorter journey to travel?
How do the NHS know I’m a carer unless the GP is involved? How will I know if I’ve been overlooked? I don’t mind how far I travel to get a jab. My dad has had his so I’m not so worried for him now or about the numerous Community Nurses coming in but I am worried about me getting sick. If I can’t care for him there’s no one else in the family so it will be a care home. I am his carer to avoid that scenario. I do everything for him throughout the day. When he was in hospital last year it was being helped to get out of bed, sit in a chair and then back into bed. Not something to look forward too.
How do the NHS know I’m a carer unless the GP is involved? How will I know if I’ve been overlooked?
Carol sorry if you’ve already tried this but have you tried ringing 119 and asking them ? At one point I thought I might have been overlooked as everyone else around me in my age group seemed to have had their invitation and I hadn’t received anything (I’m 74). The person I spoke to on the phone was very helpful and, by coincidence, I received the standard invitation letter the next day followed by a phone call from my GP on the same day asking would I like to make an appointment.
Hi susieq
Just phoned 119 and explained that I am a carer who has been in receipt of Carer’s Allowance but they said I’m not entitled to a vaccine yet. I asked how they would know I’m a carer when it was my turn and they agreed that they wouldn’t know and therefore wouldn’t offer me a vaccine. I asked what could be done to rectify this discrepancy and they are going to find out and get back to me.
I will try my GP again tomorrow.
Just as I said above.
There are no systems in place for carers.
Right so if we don’t do anything, we will by default find ourselves in ‘the rest of the population’ bracket. I’m 55 so would be in that.
So far I’ve contacted my local mayor and NHS ccg and 119.
Just found this online by searching for ‘When will carers get vaccine?’. It is from a website called Telegraph and Argus.
Unpaid carers are to be included in the next phase of the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccination from tomorrow, February 15.
Unpaid carers are in cohort six of the
While unpaid carers have not yet been formally announced in NHS England’s press notice today as one of the core groups being contacted in this next phase of the vaccine roll-out, they are in fact included in NHS England’s communication to GP practices and Primary Care Networks this weekend, which asks them to start focusing on the vaccination of unpaid carers as well as the other eligible groups announced today.
I will ring GP tomorrow and refer them to this.
Good find Carol
My husband’s tomorrow morning I have to accompany him as he is physically disabled. So I am hoping I will be offered mine at this appointment.
Google search …
If you’re bringing someone for their vaccination (e.g. if you’re 77 and your husband is 85), it’s always worth asking if you can be vaccinated at the same time.
The vaccination centre is not under any obligation, but the JCVI’s (Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation) instructions are to be flexible, so it does no harm to ask (and has worked for some of our carers.)
The above mentioned post about carers being entitled to vaccine from today is on the CarersUK site now in the press release section. It quotes Helen Walker from CarersUK.
I hope this helps when trying to book an appointment. I am going to try my luck with my GP this morning as it was a no go with 119 last night. I’m not holding my breath!
NHS instructions to PCN led local vaccination sites inc GPs C1124
Published 13th February 2021
This states that unpaid carers can be offered vaccine from 15th February.
I only find things like this because when I am up at various times during the night giving care to my 84 year old housebound dad, I surf the web to help me try to get back to sleep!
I hope this helps.
My local surgery group has posted a Facebook message this morning which made things a bit clearer for me. They are now starting Group 6 for clinically vulnerable and Carers at the surgery and are contacting people. Group 5 will receive a letter inviting them to go online to book at a mass vaccination site a few miles away, or they can choose to call the surgery for an appointment. I’m already booked in for today at the surgery for mine. I was wondering how I’d jumped ahead of group 5 !
I just rang my GP surgery again and they told me that I hadn’t been coded for a vaccine yet and would be contacted next week. The receptionist told me that they had only started booking today. I asked why some people had been coded and given an appointment already and why other people (me) had not? I complained that I’d struggled for weeks to get my dad a housebound jab and that every time I rang the surgery I had checked that I was registered as a carer. I asked how they had decided which carers were given the first appointments? When the receptionist got fed up with my questions she said hang on a moment and everything went quiet. She came back a few moments later and told me that she had spoken to the lady managing the vaccines. In the space of a minute I suddenly had been coded and given an appointment for this Wednesday.
The moral of this story, as it was with my battle to get my 84 year old dad vaccinated after a 6 week wait, is if you don’t ask you don’t get!
I’m usually the sort of person who never moans about anything and always waits in line. Well sadly I’ve found that this doesn’t seem to get you anywhere in this day and age.
Thank you to everyone on this forum who has taken the time to post their support and advice.
Well done.
I always seem to be the first one to ask all sorts of things.
My principle in life is never to ask anyone for any favours, just to get them to do their jobs properly!
In you raising this issue with your surgery you will have helped many other carers too.
Well as I could have predicted.
No to carers
Carers have to come through the G.P.
I’m am 63 so I wait until called through my age.
I’ve given up
CUK needs to do some more work then.
After all, we are “disabled by association” are we not?
Thanks Bowling bun.
I love what you said about helping people to do their job properly. Now I don’t feel like I’ve jumped the queue in some way but instead think that my ringing up the GP surgery helped them to identify me as a carer more quickly and efficiently. I also saved them the cost of a telephone call!
NHS C1124
Annex B
Adult Carers
The gist is you can be called up by the national booking line (so long as they know you are a carer!) or GPs can bypass this and call up known carers themselves. This would be a good time to ring your GP and remind them that you are a carer.