Just to say I have tried so many times to get an answer to when my 84 year old disabled and housebound dad who I care for will get his vaccine. My local newspaper The Littlehampton Gazette has featured him in an article because in our area there is no housebound vaccine rollout. I was quite shocked that the Facebook response was that he just couldn’t be bothered to go out and get it and that everyone else who are housebound are getting theirs’. Is it just me who can’t find out when someone genuinely housebound will get the vaccine. There seems to be a misconception that if you are housebound you are safe at home. Not if you have community nurses coming in and hospital appointments. Any advice? I have asked my GP, MP, PALS and reluctantly the media.
Hi Carol
So sorry you are having the run around. Not sure this link will necessarily give you the answer. You would like but the answer as to why the wait.
I am in one of the listed groups, why do I have to wait?
The COVID-19 vaccines will become available as they are approved for use and as each batch is manufactured. So every dose is needed to protect those at highest risk. You will be called in as soon as there is enough vaccine available.
Some people who are housebound > or live in a care home and who can’t get to a local vaccination centre may have to wait for supply of the right type of vaccine. This is because only some vaccines can be transported between people’s homes.
It does say some people not sure if the G.P, decides on that one.
Hi I have been wondering about this one myself. My husband will not be able to attend a place even one mile away. Our doctors and Chemist is just five mins away. We are waiting until then so I can push him round in a wheelchair. Even if he could get into a taxi , which he can not, a taxi would not want to wait for him and he can not be waiting outside like I have been seeing so far on the tv is happening at the centres. We are prepared to wait til it is much nearer as like you will be we are shielding. No one comes in and we do not go out. I should think eventually you will get a district nurse come to you with it but you will have to wait until the majority are done. That is just my opinion. I keep waiting for this to be brought up on a politic show question time but so far no one has broached the subject.
Hope it happens soon for you.
I would just like to add what I have heard in our area, and it will be different everywhere. The GPs are giving vaccines at the library a couple of days a week. They have not contacted all over-80s yet but will. They ask not to be phoned because they have so much stress. Facebook is full of people asking when their relative will be vaccinated, over 80s, but they say they will get round to them in time. As for home visits, this will be delayed. Just currently there is some kind of hold-up to do with home vaccination, but it will be resolved. It will still be later. At the library they can vaccinate 5 people in 5 minutes, but on a home visit they can vaccinate 1 person in 15 minutes, so they are doing everything to make wheelchairs available at the library etc.
People on Facebook also seem to think that the older a person is, the sooner they should be vaccinated, but it is all over-80s currently, makes no difference if they are 90-plus.
This is just what I have read.
Yes, I think you are not far off the mark. I know loads of over eighties who have been vaccinated before over nineties.
So I would guess as it’s over 80’s. Officials look at peoples medical history and decide. Which does make sense. I’ve heard many older people have more concern on how to attend their appointment. And who can assist and take them etc.
My mum (age 90) had her 1st vaccination last Sunday. She too is housebound and in a wheelchair. Mum had to travel to a Town hall about 4 miles away. She received a phone call the day before (short notice). Fortunately my sister was able to take her for her vaccination. My sister was not allowed to go inside.
Carol - I hope your dad and other housebound carees get their vaccination soon. They should get priority.
Thank you to all have replied re. my dad. I have been battling for him to get his vaccine or to at least be given a more definate timeframe since December the 13th. Now that the Oxford vaccine is available I thought there might be a glimmer of hope. As of Friday 15th January, he still can’t get to his GP and the local Community Nurses have told me they are definately not doing vaccines at the moment. I also can’t understand why this hasn’t been picked up by the media? Surely elderly housebound should be a priority as with care homes? However not all care homes have had access to vaccines either.
I’ve been up all night dealing with a blocked catheter and have just seen the news. Why are they going to vaccinate the over 70s before all of the NHS Staff, care home residents and housebound aged over 80 have had their jabs?
That’s not strictly true Carol
The expansion of the vaccination programme comes after the number of people to receive a first dose rose to 3.8 million across the UK - more than have tested positive (3.4 million) since the pandemic began.
However, people in the top two groups - care home residents, those aged 80 and over and front-line healthcare workers - should still be prioritised for vaccinations, the Department for Health and Social Care said.
People aged 70 and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals make up priority groups three and four.
Thank you for your response Susie . Having just watched the morning news the over 70s will be vaccinated in areas where the over 80s and care homes have mostly been done. Some areas in the country have not vaccinated as many perhaps because they have a larger elderly population or less access to vaccine. My point is that surely those areas with spare vaccine should help areas where there is a greater need for vaccines for the over 80s.
I have been worried sick that my dad will catch Covid and die before he is vaccinated. He has district nurses coming in and an appointment tomorrow for podiatry treatment at a NHS clinic which he will go to in an ambulance. He has waited and we have tried to shield as much as possible since December 13th. I am a teacher and have been allowed to stay at home to protect him. I don’t know what more I can do to protect him? If a 70 year old has the vaccine before him, how is that fair when he has been patient and waited so long? There still isn’t a housebound vaccine rollout in my area.
It’s just not possible with the number of different categories (I think it’s eight) to cover every eventuality/requirement. Unpaid carers for example don’t appear to have been particularly well thought about.
Just think of horoscopes - are there really only twelve types of people/character in the world?
What worries me as well is that he could have had it on December 13th. That’s surely enough time for someone to have come up with a working plan for housebound rollout? If something happens to him it will be my fault because I didn’t have the strength to push him 2 miles in his wheelchair to get the vaccine on Dec 13th. I can’t lift him in and out of a car anymore. He uses Patient Transfer for hospital appointments but they are very busy and obviously can’t do trips to the GP.
I saw on the news that somewhere in the South West two retired doctors were taking vaccines door to door for the housebound using a trolley.
Any practical advice would be really helpful. We have been patient and waited but nothing has happened.
Carol, I think the issue is they want to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible.
The over 80’s living at home are often less able/willing to travel and less suited to the mass vaccination sites.
Melly1
Yes Melly I quite agree. In the time it takes to do one housebound person they could probably do 50 people at the vaccination hub.
My worry is that they will never get around to doing the housebound especially if the media makes out that it is being done on a large scale.
Dad has waited patiently for nearly 5 weeks now and on each day someone could have brought Covid infection into the house. When he watches the news each day it’s like rubbing salt into the wound. Each time he asks when is he is getting his? Saying that they will now vaccinate 70 year olds will just make the feeling of being left out or not important enough worse.
Thanks for your support though. It helps me to know that someone is interested.
Carol,
my Mum is waiting for a vaccine at home too. She was having district nurse visits for a leg ulcer following a fall, but that has healed now.
For those receiving visits from a district nurse, it would be very easy for the district nurse to administer the jab at the same time (though not sure what the implications are for keeping the vaccine cold enough.)
My Mum said she had received a letter about it and had rung the district nurse team herself to enquire about it. She said her surgery were also asking for retired medics etc to assist with the vaccination programme.
Since the over 80’s are eligible - we shall all have to keep pushing for this to actually happen.
Melly1
We are in same situation with 86 year old mother in law. She gets her annual flu jab at home, so naturally thought she would automatically go on the list for a home Covid Vacc. Not heard anything yet. She doesn’t go out at all as the day care/club she used to visit pre-virus has closed. She cannot weight bear and needs a wheelchair taxi or ambulance to get to any centre or hospital.
She has 4x double handed carer visits every day, so in theory is mixing with up to 8 different people daily, who may have come straight from other households. I am not knocking the carers, they are doing everything they can to be safe, but even those stuck at home rather than residential care, are still at risk of contracting it. Hubby and I call in once a week with her shopping and collect laundry etc, but we don’t touch her or get within 2 metres and keep our visits as brief as possible, wash hands, wipe surfaces etc, so trying to be careful.
I haven’t chased up her surgery to see if she is registered to have a home jab yet, as I know they are inundated, but if they start calling those 70+ and she still hasn’t had one, I will be.
Hope things work out for you too Witch Hazel. BBC South Today just did a piece on the lack of housebound visits and vaccines for the over 80s today. Hopefully things will speed up soon.
At last a Government Cabinet Minister has spoken out about vaccines not being as widely available for the top two priority groups as we are being led to believe.
She has highlighted the issue of over 70s being offered vaccinations before all care home residents and over 80s have received their jabs. If over 80s are being reassured by the Vaccine Minister that the over 70s are being offered future appointments to be ready for when all of Priority Groups 1and 2 are complete, hopefully the issue of housebound people within the over 80s group will finally be addressed. Thank you for all your helpful and supportive messages posted here.
Hi
My Mother had a letter last Monday asking her to ring up for an appointment or to book online.
I tried unsuccessfully, about 10 times that day - all I got each time was a message with numerous choices of number to press, then was told all the lines were busy and was cut off each time. How many over 80’s would be able to deal with this, especially if they lived alone and had no one they could speak to about it?
I tried to book online… similar experience, answered the questions, got to the ‘put your postcode’ in and was told she’d have to go to Millenium Point in Birmingham. She is 92, very frail and housebound, and I don’t know how many miles we live from Birmingham! How many over 80’s would be able to book ‘online’ anyway?
There was no mention in the letter about what to do if somebody was housebound for whatever reason, except to say ‘your local NHS services will be in contact with you’ - does that mean local GP Surgery? and would they even know if you were housebound?
I ended up ringing the Dr’s Surgery, now she is ‘on a list’ for a home visit, but they have no idea when this will be.
Friends and relatives are astonished when they hear that Mother has not had a Vaccine yet when some of them have had both of theirs and they are younger.
I agree, some people seem to think if you are housebound, then you are not at risk… the fact that you could well have 6 - 8 different Carers coming in daily (as well as Nurses etc) seems irrelevant.
The ironic thing is that Mother was in Hospital when the very first Vaccine was given out - but there were no Vaccines at the Hospital she was in - just made me think ‘right age, wrong Hospital’.
The letter mentions ‘bad allergic reactions’ - what do they class as that? Does it mean purely Anaphylaxis?
Sorry to rant…!