Apology issued after long queues outside Plymouth vaccination centre
People had to wait in the freezing cold, outside Home Park stadium
The NHS in Plymouth has apologised, after long queues formed outside one of its vaccination centres yesterday (8 February).
Hundreds of people had to wait in the cold, outside Home Park, before getting their vaccine.
University Hospitals Plymouth says it is investigating what happened, saying it has deployed more staff to administer the jabs.
In a statement, the NHS trust said:
"We apologise to anyone who had to queue at Home Park.
"We have deployed more staff to vaccinate and whilst the queue is constantly moving we have staff going through the queue identifying people who are more frail and bringing them to the front.
"We are also offering an alternative venue to suitable patients. We are working very hard to reduce the queue and ask that anyone with an appointment waits in their car, or arrives no earlier than 15 minutes before their appointment time.
"We are looking into what happened.
"We know that some people turned up earlier than their appointment times and perhaps with it being cold, they didn’t want to wait in cars and wanted to get into the centre instead.
"Our aim is to get as many vaccinated as safely and quickly as possible and we would like to thank the thousands of people who are turning up to get vaccinated.
"We are sorry for the wait.
"Our staff are working hard to make their experience as smooth as it possibly can be and, even today when people had to wait, we have had lots of words of appreciation and thanks.
"For all those with upcoming appointments please do attend for your vaccination."
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