By Kira Gibson
A woman who is shielding endured a wasted 45-minute trip to get the coronavirus vaccine – only to discover a lack of information on the online booking form meant she could not have it.
Corinna Gibson, 48, went with her boyfriend to Littlewick Medical Centre, Ilkeston, on Saturday, after booking a few days earlier to get the vaccine.
After a 45-minute drive, Ms Gibson arrived expecting to get her vaccine only to be told that she could not have it, due to having an anaphylaxis reaction to a drug, with the nurses unsure whether she would have an allergic reaction to the vaccine.
The website for booking the vaccine tells users not to get it if they:
* have received a flu vaccination in the last seven days
* currently have a fever
* have a history of allergic reactions to vaccinations
* or have tested positive for COVID-19 in the last four weeks.
“I believe that if there had been a couple of questions on the booking site prior to booking to ask about medical allergies, then my wasted journey wouldn’t have happened,” said Ms Gibson.
“The risk that myself and my family were put under for me to be turned away is no joke.
“Maybe I could’ve done some digging prior to the vaccination, but we are all reliant on the NHS to do the right thing and we all want this to go away, so I trusted that this was right. I returned home with my partner feeling very angry, upset, and, to be honest, embarrassed.”
People who are clinically ‘extremely vulnerable’ and in shielding are not supposed to travel anywhere, unless for an essential purpose, such as to get vaccinated.
Ms Gibson said with people being sent all over the place to get their vaccines, being sure they are able to take it safely is a must.
She said she now has to wait for the Oxford vaccine to become available, with the real possibility that she might not be able to take that one either, due to the same risk.
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