"Covid vaccination session"

My mother was invited for a Covid vaccination at her GP practice (Normanby Nedical Practice, Middlesbrough ) recently. She is in her 80s.

When we arrived we had difficulty getting into the practice car park from the main road due to the number of cars in the  car park waiting for spaces. This caused obstruction on the main road with long queues of traffic . When we did eventually get in to the car park my mother joined the queue of approximately 50 people waiting outside the doors of the practice. All waiting for vaccination.

Inside the practice in the foyer and up the stairs there were approximately another 100 people waiting. Many people arriving after us left immediately when they saw the the size of the queue. Others standing in the queue gave up and left due to the length of time they were waiting outside in the cold and wind. As we stood there many more joined the queue so there were then about 100 people waiting outside.

The group of people who are eligible for Covid vaccination are elderly,  frail and vulnerable. There were many people in wheelchairs, with zimmer frames and walkers standing outside in the cold. There were no staff outside to advise what was happening  and people were confused about what was happening. .There were no chairs outside for people to sit on.

Once the queue moved inside the practice there were staff managing the queue and there were approximately 5 chairs for people to sit on. My mother waited 1 hour and 10 minutes to be seen and did manage to have a seat for some of that time but had to give that up as the queue moved. One patient ended up lying in the floor and had to be attended to by clinical staff during the wait.  

As a nurse myself who works in the NHS I was absolutely appalled at how frail, elderly and vulnerable people were treated today by Normanby Medical Practice. There  was obviously a complete lack of foresight by those who organised the vaccination session today at how they could manage such a large number of people in the practice at one time and the impact that this would have on the parking situation and the resulting impact on the flow of traffic into the main road. As we left the practice after the appointment the queue was even longer and we had difficulty getting out of the car park and back onto the main road due to the sheer volume of traffic entering and leaving the car park, causing the main road to be at a standstill.

The situation today at the practice was unacceptable and I feel a complete review of the lack of organisation needs to be undertaken to prevent this happening in the future. I will not be taking my mother to the practice in the future for vaccinations and will book elsewhere to ensure a better service. Many people in the queue today expressed the same sentiment.