Patients were left wandering around a Fife hospital in confusion this week after a winter vaccination clinic was cancelled without notice.
Several people turned up at Randolph Wemyss Hospital in Buckhaven on Tuesday after booking appointments for Covid and flu jags.
However, they found no staff to administer the vaccines and no information about what to do.
Among them was Levenmouth Labour councillor Colin Davidson, who said he was informed by a cleaner the clinic had been called off.
He had received a reminder to attend the clinic the previous day.
And he said: “There were quite a few angry people there and some others who were getting quite anxious.
“The receptionist from the GP surgery within the hospital said she’d had a lot of enquiries about what was going on.
“But it was nothing to do with her and all she could do was hand out a phone number.”
Alternative clinics in Glenrothes
Fife’s flu vaccination programme started on September 4, with some groups also receiving Covid jabs from Monday this week.
Mr Davidson booked his appointment for both vaccines around four weeks ago.
However, there has since been a change to national guidance to ensure more vulnerable groups are vaccinated first.
This follows identification of a new Covid variant.
And it meant a clinic at Randolph Wemyss had to be called off.
NHS Fife said 23 people had appointments there on Tuesday.
Most were notified in advance by phone or letter, although some were missed.
Lisa Cooper, head of NHS Fife’s pharmacy and preventative care service, said staff had begun contacting affected people to apologise and help rearrange appointments.
Mr Davidson said: “I was told letters were sent out to say the clinic was off but I certainly didn’t receive one. It’s shambolic.
“I had a look online and the first alternative appointments at Randolph Wemyss are in December.”
Mr Davidson did eventually receive his vaccinations but had to make a 14-mile round tip to Glenrothes.
Apologies after previous Fife vaccination issues
It’s not the first time NHS Fife has had issues with its vaccination programme.
In September 2020, health bosses apologised after the flu vaccination programme was plunged into chaos when 75,000 letters were sent out to older patients at the same time.
Only eight call handlers had been employed and the system was designed to answer 12,000 calls a week.
However, it became jammed by around 1,000 attempts to get through every hour.
Then, in February 2021, further apologies were issued when around 7,000 Covid-19 jabs were wrongly scheduled due to a national IT glitch.
This led to hundreds of Fife pensioners queueing outside vaccination centres in the snow.
However, the vaccination programme has been declared a success overall with more than 10 million doses administered in Scotland in its first year alone.
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