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Care Opinion

Peterhead Vaccination Centre

Posted By Mumof2beautifulgirls

"Peterhead Vaccination Centre"

About: Peterhead Community Hospital

(as a service user),

I am writing to express my concerns over the baby vaccinations moving away from health visitors/gp practice to the local vaccination centre. My first child's vaccines coincided with a health visitor check and GP check so we only had to go to one appointment.

This time around my little ones vaccines were scheduled for morning in one hospital and then GP appointment in another hospital just a few hours later. This is unfair on the baby having to strip them down a second time when they have just been through a traumatic experience a few hours earlier. It is also unfair to expect parents to attend 2 appointments. How does this work for people who don't drive? 

For my baby's second vaccines it is now a few days before they are due and I'm yet to receive any appointment in the post. I have had to call the vaccination line which has taken half an hour to get through (ridiculous) just to chase and find out when the appointment would be.

This system clearly doesn't work and I have spoken to numerous health care professionals who also agree it isn't working well. I really think consideration should be made to move vaccines back to the surgery unless something can be done to fix the organisation of the whole thing. 

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Responses

Response from Maya Cross, Operational Lead Nurse - Vaccinations, Aberdeenshire, NHS Grampian 16 months ago
Maya Cross
Operational Lead Nurse - Vaccinations, Aberdeenshire,
NHS Grampian

Submitted on 15/12/2022 at 15:51
Published on Care Opinion at 15:51

Dear Mumof2beautifulgirls

Thank you for your feedback with regard to baby immunisation appointments. I am sorry to hear the experience has not been satisfactory for you or your baby.

As part of a government initiative, vaccinations have, in the main, been taken out of GP practices. The remit now falls under the Health and Social Care Partnership to deliver all vaccinations for all age groups.

The decision had been made that all immunisation appointments were to be arranged on a different day to the HV appointments however, due to the pandemic there was a significant backlog of baby immunisations to catch up with so in an effort to do this we opened a Tuesday clinic. This has been successful in its mission but unfortunately it did mean a double appointment on the same day for some parents and their babies.

Going forward, this should no longer occur but if you find yourself in a similar situation please use the information on the letter or reminder text to re-arrange an appointment and the utmost effort will be made to accommodate at a time that suits you best.

In regard to your baby’s second immunisation appointment, I hope you will have heard by now but if not, I am happy for you to call my direct number with your baby’s details and I will look into it for you. I do wonder if the postal strikes have had anything to do with it.

Kind Regards

Maya Cross

Primary Care Lead Nurse

Tel: 07909 931703

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