"No empathy - very let down"

These are very difficult days. Not only are we all concerned about contracting Covid but also having to cope with a seemingly endless lockdown. Being in the fifth cohort my wife and I were very pleased that we would be vaccinated. I received my invitation on Thursday by text, and we both assumed my wife, being just five months younger and approaching her 67th birthday, expected a similar invitation a day or two later. My appointment was made swiftly and efficiently (as was the vaccination process) BUT when my wife received a letter from the NHS - it was not to the surgery but a range of options from Attleborough to Brighton! Not even Norwich! My wife felt very much the second class patient. She raised the issue with surgery. No empathy - just a brush-off. As she was becoming clearly distressed at the thought of having a delay - I went along to the vaccination surgery the day before my appointment and offered my jab to her. The receptionist at Cringleford would not countenance the idea and explained my shot was individually registered to me. Sorry - rot. I was not bothered about having a delay and really could not understand why the substitution could not be done. This was re-enforced when I had my vaccination.

I acknowledge that things are not easy, but I would have thought my wife is not alone about being anxious about things and it was such an easy thing to do. I was not seeking a jab myself. The problem was solved by having to book a vaccination at Ipswich - thankfully not Brighton!

With every day we hear in the media about mental well-being, I find it difficult to understand why the receptionist and, indeed, other members of the Humbleyard team did not recognise this as “a cry for help”. We have lived in Swardeston just 18 months and our only visit to the Surgery was to register. We are fortunate that we have not had to seek medical assistance but this lack of care has left us both disillusioned and disappointed.