Patients forced to queue in freezing temperatures outside vaccination centres
NHS Tayside and NHS Fife have apologised for the long queues outside vaccination centres yesterday.
Last updated 9th Feb 2021
Patients waiting to get a vaccine at centres in Tayside and Fife were left queueing outside in the snow as they waited for their vaccinations yesterday.
In Fife, four different clinics experienced delays, with some people missing appointments due to a scheduling error overbooking the facilities.
Meanwhile, in Dundee people were left in the cold outside Caird Hall - with NHS Tayside asking patients not to arrive more than five minutes early.
The health board's offered 'sincere apologies' - promising: they'll make sure 'unacceptable' queues from overbooking 'will not happen again.'
Enough doses of vaccine are in stock to inoculate the extra patients with the help of extra staff and immunisation stations -- and patients turned away yesterday will get new appointments.
A spokesperson for NHS Tayside said, “We are aware that some patients experienced a longer wait today at the Caird Hall for their vaccination appointment and we would like to thank them for their patience and apologise for their wait."
“Due to the adverse weather conditions, the queue was longer than expected due to a combination of factors. Some patients arrived late for their appointments and some patients arrived early, which meant more people than planned attended at the same time. The weather also meant that some staff were not able to get to the site as planned. Due to the need to maintain 2 metres distance between people, there is a limited capacity to hold people inside the venue."
“In response, more vaccinators were brought in to increase the number of people who could be vaccinated and reduce the number of people waiting. We are also reviewing our plans to identify any improvements that can be made.
Here are the centres that were affected in Fife :
East Neuk Centre, Anstruther
Lochgelly Centre
Randolph Wemyss Memorial Hospital, Buckhaven,
Rothes Halls, Glenrothes
Templehall Community Centre, Kirkcaldy.
The NHS Fife Chief Executive, Carol Potter also offered apologies:
“I want to offer our most sincere apologies to those who had to wait in significant queues at some of our community vaccination clinics today."
"This was entirely unacceptable and we are working with our colleagues in NHS National Services Scotland to understand how this scheduling error occurred and ensure that it does not happen again."
“The residents of Fife have shown a great deal of patience and understanding today, and we want to thank local people for their incredible support they have offered us over recent months. I also want to thank our vaccination teams for the additional effort required this week to ensure that we minimise any disruption to our vaccination programme.”
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