Coronavirus (COVID-19)

I'm fortunate to say that I have continued to dodge it. Or if I haven't, then its been so mild I haven't known about it. Though by now I've had 4 shots of anti-C juice, so maybe my immune system has just been standing tall screaming "Stay Back".

I could take offence at that, but I won't. 

There seem to be a few really bad bugs around at the moment, some test positive for Covid, some don't, and some seem to only test positive on a few days of the infection, not the first couple of days and not much later. I guess it doesn't really matter what it is, but seems really nasty and long lasting. 

michaelc, I entirely agree with you. Like you I've never worried about Flu, in fact the jab I had this year is only my second one (mid 60's) and similarly I don't worry about Covid having had it three times already. I think the salient point though is that whatever I've got now is as bad as anything I've had before and if it is an example of what's around, whilst I'm not saying "worry about it" I am saying "get a jab".

I have allergies, and was told "It's this (Pfizer) or nothing we will just put you down as refused"
so I've had it had to sit on what they described as the "Naughty Chair" for 10 .

what has happened to empathy and caring in the NHS

the process was a farce
1 nurse as a door keeper ( why not a security guy / porter that would be cheaper )
1 nurse checking letters
2 nurses doing jabs
2 more using laptops to record data
another checking the injections
and 2 managers watching the others

I was 24th in queue when I arrived, and it took an hour and 10 minutes to get to being injected 

as @berneythedolt said, your experience is very different from mine. But I'll come back to that.

Our vaccine "centre" is much reduced from its old venue - not surprisingly. It is run by/on behalf of a number of GP surgeries that are part of/fall under a particular primary care trust. 

While much reduced from the previous setup, it nonetheless was still using volunteers for e.g. front door, car park and guidance (the location is a bit less than ideal and so could be a little difficult for the target elderly cohort to navigate). The check in desk is run not by nurses, but by doctors surgery reception type staff on secondment. at the old centre there would typically have been two or three of those, now only 1. The number of nurses - who ware only there for jabbing/vaccine handling - much reduced. 

Perhaps one of the major differences here is that ours is run for the benefit of the primary care trust - with the stakeholders being GP practises which are in effect businesses - and the other being run directly by "NHS Central". 

I have noted before that in the latter stages of the vaccine programs though, there seemed to be a tendency to have way more nursing staff on (to do jabs) than was necessitated by the number of appointments. Perhaps understandable in the first programs, but not really in the booster programs after the first 2 or 3 weeks. I got a sense that there was an element of an 'overtime gravy train' going on for the NHS staff angle for considerable periods, through significant overstaffing. 

Just gone back and checked for reasons best known to me: I've actually had 6 shots. No wonder I've kept clear.....