Edinburgh NHS staff seeking vaccination appointments are told 'no slots available'

And a colleague who dialled the same priority number for health staff later just got a recorded message saying there were no slots left.

The first worker, who sees patients face-to-face at an optician’s but asked not to be named, said she had deliberately waited a few weeks before trying the number to get an appointment so nurses and doctors could get their vaccinations first.

She said: “I wasn’t trying to get ahead of anybody else. But I phoned on Monday and was on hold for around an hour. Eventually my call was answered and the lady said, ‘Before I take your details, there’s no slots in Edinburgh at all’. She said she could offer me Haddington, but I don’t have a car and I’m not going to go on a bus.

"We’ve had a lot of Covid scares in my practice and I’m trying to do the right thing. Several of my colleagues have had their vaccinations already.”

And she said: “Another colleague tried to call yesterday and now there’s a recorded message saying ‘no slots left, please speak to you line manager’.

“I believe other health boards have a website set up for the public to book in. Why don’t Lothian have that system?”

Colin Briggs, director of strategic planning and executive lead for the staff vaccination programme at NHS Lothian, said: “More than 40,000 health and social care workers and care home staff have been vaccinated in Lothian as part of Wave One of the vaccination programme. New appointments for dedicated staff clinics are now being scaled down as the next wave of the programme gets underway from February 1.

"Frontline staff who have not yet been able to get an appointment, or those who have just joined a patient-facing health or social care role will be given priority access at one of the many centres which will be operating across Lothian as part of Wave 2 of the vaccination programme.”

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