With the coronavirus vaccine now available in the UK, those in clinically vulnerable groups may want to access it as soon as possible.
When the priority list was announced by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), those at the front of the line were told they would be contacted in due course.
But some people seem to have skipped a step, by contacting hospitals directly and booking themselves in for a jab – something the NHS advises against.
Grandfather Martin Kenyon, 91, gained an audience around the world on Tuesday after giving an amusing interview to a journalist outside Guy’s Hospital in London.
Kenyon became one of the first people in the world to have the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine outside of a trial – and said he accessed it via a simple phone call. “I rang up Guy’s Hospital, which I know very well because I have lived in London most of my adult life, and I said: ‘What’s this thing, you’re doing the vaccination?’”
After asking him a series of “not very interesting” questions, the hospital told him he could come in for his jab that day.
“They said: ‘Well, come at half past 12,’” he explained. “Of course, I couldn’t damn well find anywhere to park my car, so I was late.”
Another Londoner, a 40-year-old who wished to remain anonymous, told HuffPost UK he secured an appointment to have the vaccine on Wednesday, after calling up his local hospital in London on Tuesday.
The man has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease – which makes him extremely clinically vulnerable to Covid-19 – and has been shielding alone since March. But he was surprised when phone operators only asked “four or five simple questions” before booking him in.
“It was odd, they didn’t ask about any illnesses, but I’m not complaining,” he says. “It’s quite a relief to be honest. I’m still worried I can still get it and pass it around, but the symptoms won’t kill me at least.”
At this time, the NHS is only officially offering the vaccine to people who work in care homes, high risk health workers and “some people aged 80 and over who already have a hospital appointment in the next few weeks”.
It’s unclear whether Kenyon belongs to the latter group and if he was due to visit the hospital soon anyway. But the NHS has asked people not to follow his lead and call for appointments.
NHS England confirmed to HuffPost UK that people should wait to be contacted to receive a vaccine and shouldn’t call up to request one.
The vaccine is initially being offered in 50 hospital hubs across England. Prioritised groups will be called upon to take the vaccine either from their GP or hospital via a letter from the NHS or their local health board, the NHS confirmed.
Health and social care secretary Matt Hancock previously urged those who are called forward for vaccination by the NHS “to respond quickly, to protect themselves, their loved ones and their community”.