>> Thank you sooty. I'd not thought of that because I don't know anything about trusts,
>> so had to google. I found what seems to be the "trust" for Cambridgeshire, where
>> it says:
>>
>> If you are not over 70 years old or clinically extremely vulnerable please wait to
>> be contacted
>>
My experience is that both provision and information is very fragmented. That is not an overt criticism, as I'm in awe of what the (largely un-interfered with in this case) NHS has achieved so far, and the situation is changing rapidly.
In my particular case in Notts, the provision and invites seem to be taking two separate routes:
1. Via the national NHS initiative, which is, I think, represented by the link already posted above, and which I'm assuming will give you an option of the larger, "national" centres (certainly, one of my neighbours who was quick out of the traps using this had the offer of locations in Leics and Derbys, rather a long way away).
2. Via the Clinical Commissioning Group's initiative, which is running its own booking system, and offering sites in Notts only. SWMBO took an early slot around 13 miles away, whilst I got one later within 2 hours of booking only 6 miles away.
Notts have been doing over 65's for over a week now (even though headline news is that it started today). Initially via invitation, but very quickly the local booking system was thrown open (to all eligible) without invitation. The documentation as to whether you should wait for an invite, or just go for it, varied (even from the same underlying source) depending on by which route you accessed it. (without an invite, I waited until there was both a clear directive just to book, and an obvious surplus of slots anyway). Apocryphally, experiences like this are fairly common elsewhere.
I had a letter inviting me to the "national" booking site the day after I'd been done, and texts from the CCG and GP inviting me to the other booking site over the next two days. Here, at least, there isn't just a single route available.
I think the secret to staying on top of it is to understand just who is organising the delivery in your area. National and by CCG is one option, but in other areas I believe individual GPs have retained elements of control - there may be 1, 2, 3 or more overlapping sets of provision.
|
