Elderly queue in freezing temperatures for Covid-19 vaccines
A health centre near Bristol has apologised after elderly patients were pictured waiting outside in freezing temperatures for their coronavirus vaccinations.
Photographs shared on social media show lengthy queues of people waiting to get their jabs at Kingswood Health Centre on Saturday 2 January.
There were reports of some people having to wait for more than an hour in the socially distanced line before they got inside.
A spokesperson from Kingswood Health Centre has since apologised on its Facebook page, adding more than 1,100 people were vaccinated that day.
The full statement from Kingswood Health Centre
"Today our four practices managed to vaccinate over 1100 patients. We were given notice to deliver this clinic on Tuesday. The vaccine was delivered on Thursday and had to be used up by Sunday. Due to the bank holiday, today was our only option to set up the clinic.
"Staff from across the four practices gave up their free time to book patients in and support the clinics today. This was all at very short notice after already having an incredibly difficult year.
"Unfortunately in the morning we experienced long queues for patients waiting to come in. Every single room in the health centre was being used to vaccinate and we were unable to move patients through any quicker.
"Social distancing meant we couldn’t keep more people waiting inside the building. As we saw the queue growing we called in extra staff to help out, and thankfully by the afternoon session we managed to get the wait down to 20 minutes.
"We apologise if people had to wait a long time in the morning. As with all new things, we will review our model and look to improve it. This is new to all of us and we are doing our absolute best to vaccinate as many patients as we can and not waste any vaccine.
"Despite the issues we experienced today, we still managed to vaccinate a significant number of patients in our area and for that I am immensely proud of my team."
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