NHS urges people not to DNA their covid autumn booster appointments

DNA or Did Not Attend is the acronym used when people make an appointment but don’t attend and don’t cancel their appointment.  DNAs are not new to anyone who works in a GP practice and seem to be becoming more prevalent within the covid vaccination programme too.

“Anecdotally, we are experiencing a DNA rate of around ten percent a day, so for every ten covid vaccinations booked, one person fails to turn up and doesn’t cancel their appointment,” comments Julie Humphreys, Head of Clinical Services, Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust.

“To put this into context, we can book appointments and vaccinate just over 500 people a day at the Weighing Rooms Mass Vaccination Centre, so if our DNA rate is around ten percent this means 50 people a day make appointments for their covid vaccination and then fail to turn up and don’t cancel their appointment.”

With 230,175 Lincolnshire people having had their autumn booster vaccination (as of 31^st October), if DNAs have run at around ten percent since the covid autumn booster launched, this could represent a significant amount of appointments booked and not used.  So people are being strongly urged to not DNA, and if they cannot attend to cancel their appointment.

“Our preference would be for people to keep the appointments they have made, because our primary concern is to get as many people vaccinated as possible.  However, we understand things change but if you cannot make your appointment, it is possible to cancel it,” explains Julie.

“If you have booked online through the National Booking System, you can cancel your appointment online using the National Booking System.  Similarly, if you have booked by calling 119, you can cancel by calling 119.  If you have booked through your GP practice, you should call them to cancel.”

Appointments can be booked and cancelled online via the National Booking System by clicking on ‘Manage your appointment’.

“We’d be really grateful if people cancelled their appointments if they know they are not going to be able to make it,” adds Julie.  “Mainly because it potentially frees up the appointment for someone else to use, but it also helps us to plan better if we know how many appointments we have booked and, therefore, how much vaccine we’ll need.”

In an effort to make accessing the covid autumn booster as easy and convenient as possible, the Mass Vaccination Centre at the Weighing Rooms, Carholme Road, Lincoln, will from next week be taking walk-ins for the covid autumn booster Mondays to Fridays 9am-4pm, Saturdays 9am-1pm and Sundays 9am-4pm.

“Like colleagues at our other Mass Vaccination Centre at PRSA, Boston, at the Weighing Rooms we’re really keen to make it as easy as possible for people to get protected by having their covid autumn vaccination, particularly as we go into what could be a very challenging winter,” says Julie.

“So we’ll be making walk-ins available at the Weighing Rooms to anyone aged 50 or over without appointment, including health and social care workers.  They will be dependent on vaccine supply and will be given on a ‘first come, first served’ basis with priority given to people who have booked an appointment, meaning – on occasion – people may have to wait.”

Appointments for a covid autumn booster can also be pre-booked by people aged 50 and over, children and adults aged 5-49 who are in a clinical risk group or are household contacts of someone with immunosuppression, carers aged 16 - 49 years and frontline health and social care workers.

It’s also important to get your flu jab too if you’re eligible – if you are aged 50 and over, have certain health conditions, are pregnant, in long-stay residential care, or in receipt of a carer’s allowance or are the main carer for an older or disabled person who may be at risk if you get sick, or you live with someone more likely to get a severe infection due to a weakened immune system.

Many of the GP and community pharmacy-run covid vaccination sites around the county are offering people the opportunity to get their flu jab at the same time as their covid autumn booster, although the Meres Vaccination Centre, Grantham, the Weighing Rooms, Lincoln, and PRSA, Boston, are not and are only offering covid vaccinations.