"This whole experience was horrible"

I went to get my winter vaccines after having been for my asthma review and seeing that booking was open for appointments. I was unsure whether my asthma qualified me for covid as well as Flu so I checked the website and cross checked what the terms were and from my reviews of the website it inferred I was to get both. Which is what I was told at my asthma review but I wanted to be sure as I didn’t want to get there and be wrong in case it had changed this year. I booked my appointment and then the next day got my letter through the post inviting me to book my covid and flu  vaccine appointments.

I went to my appointment and was greeted my a nurse who from the beginning made me feel stupid and as if I was trying to cheat the NHS out of a free vaccine I was not entitled to. They said no as you are young you don’t get that, never checked what I meant about how I had had a major asthma flare up earlier this year after having at a respiratory illness where I was hitting the orange section on my asthma scale plan repeatedly and having to take my blue inhaler to be able to breath doing anything at all that was even a little strenuous (a more than 5 minute walk or climbing a few stairs). My asthma nurse said if that happened again then I should make an appointment to get oral steroids and not suffer in silence and think oh when you have asthma that’s just normal it doesn’t need to be hitting hospital level for it to not be normal.

The vaccine nurse seemed really focused on the fact that I said at the moment my asthma was ok but didn’t listen to me when I said I don’t know whether it is well controlled as my asthma is incredibly season where generally in the warmer months I don’t get a lot of symptoms but once the weather turns my airways get really twitchy and I get asthma attacks and so saying oh it’s controlled at the moment isn’t necessarily true for all 12 months of the year. When I get respiratory illnesses my asthma symptoms also seem to skyrocket.

They never asked if there was anything else that meant that I was entitled to it. They said I was wrong and I should read the green book. They said that all the doctors and nurses who I had seen in the last year who would have had access to my medical records were wrong and didn’t know what they were talking about. That everyone who is not on the vaccine team doesn’t have a clue. If it is true that they aren’t told who is and who isn’t to get it then that seems poor information distribution on the vaccine team's behalf as the GPs and community nurses are the ones who patients see all the time and are often advising them so it would seem sensible for them to have the correct info and tick boxes to advise their patients. 

I was concerned that I might not even get my flu vaccine if I didn’t shut up so I decided one was better than nothing and I would try and research some more to see if there was another way to get the vaccine some other way as I had been so ill earlier in the year and also my parents were so vulnerable I was worried about infecting them with anything.

Having finished making me feel like a stupid little girl, the nurse then by ticked the box saying I had had my vaccine without actually giving me my vaccine which meant that the other nurse or HCSW then couldn’t give me it as the system wouldn’t then let them record it. When the nurse/HCSW shouted them back over to see if there was a reason that it had marked me as done, they then came back over as if it was my fault that they were running late and went oh I suppose I’ll have to do it then.

I went outside trying not to show that I was holding back tears at being humiliated it front of a whole room full of people. Luckily there was another patient outside who I had been chatting to in the waiting room who was lovely and said I’m sure that you can get the Covid vaccine privately if you go to the pharmacy. After listening to why I was concerned about getting covid due to my family situation and the fact that I had been so ill and had been quite scared as I couldn’t breathe doing the littlest things for about 2-4 weeks after having a fairly minor respiratory infection. 

The pharmacist couldn’t have been lovelier and agreed that the website was confusing as it didn’t specify what it meant by steroids. They said if they'd read the website then they would have thought it meant if you had to take any type of steroids then that meant you were eligible.

The pharmacist agreed that from the experience I had had with the vaccine team that presumably they mean oral steroids on top of your usual inhalers, but that isn’t clarified. The pharmacist made the whole experience so much better as they listened to me and made me feel like a human being with valid concerns.

The whole experience with the vaccine team was horrible and made me want to just go away and cry in my car and makes me quite scared for next year in case I have the same experience. I normally have nothing negative to say about the NHS, but this whole experience was horrible.