LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Let down by everyone

AT the start of the pandemic we were sent a letter from the NHS informing us that our son is classed as being clinically vulnerable to the effects of Covid. At first we shielded for months, not even going out to the shops. All food, clothing and everything else we needed was delivered to us and thoroughly cleaned before it came into our house.

Once the country opened up again we were told that he was no longer on the vulnerable list so we should go about our life as normal (within the restrictions that everyone else had).

For people who have tried to protect their son for so many months the idea that he was still at risk was impossible to shake so we find ourselves near two years later in a very similar place to where we started, we buy everything online to minimise our exposure to people in shops, we rarely eat out and when we do it’s to somewhere we know uses masks in the kitchen and where tables are available outside where we can relax for even a short time without the worry that we would put our son in harm’s way.

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My wife and I both work from home but there is increasing pressure to go back into the office which I am not at all comfortable with for the sake of our son’s health. The one concession we have made is our son goes to school but he wears a mask in the halls and corridors, he even keeps it on for the walk home. Essentially other than school his and our lives have been put on pause.

Three weeks ago there was a chink of light at the end of the tunnel when we received a letter from the NHS once again saying due to the fact that our son was on the vulnerable list he was entitled to the covid vaccine even though he was under 12.

The letter didn’t go into detail of how we can get him the vaccine so we went online to the NHS website to see if there was more information there. Online appointments are only available to 12 and over so we couldn’t use that. We called Rotherham’s Covid appointment booking service and were told that they “didn’t do vaccines for under 12s” and they were closing anyway so we should try our GP. Our GPs told us they also didn’t do any Covid vaccines but they knew of a vaccine centre that may do under 12s at the old Greenoaks centre at Rotherham General. I tried Greenoaks but they didn’t do vaccines and the vaccine centre that had taken over their old building didn’t have a phone to call.

Once all details had been taken and following a few moments of keyboard clicking followed by silence we were again told they couldn’t give bookings for under 12s so maybe we should try our GP or go to a drop in centre with our letter to see if they would give our son a vaccine. So off we went to the Rotherham United ground where there is currently a walk-in service for vaccines. I was told that although they had been given the appropriate training they weren’t allowed to vaccinate under 12s. “Have you tried 119 or your GP”

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We have met stone walls at every end and turn, our only glimmer of hope came from the GP surgery who called back to say they will be doing under 12 vaccinations at some point but they don’t have any dates yet and it’s also subject to them getting interest from 16 other vulnerable children. Apparently the lower dosage of vaccine means they get 17 doses out of a single vial so will only set up a vaccination clinic once they have enough numbers to make it cost effective!

As of today the country is back open for business with people’s freedoms being restored to as close to normal as we have seen since the start of the pandemic, but we are left feeling as though we are still in limbo, still waiting for a vaccination for our son and still unable to comfortably re-enter society and enjoy life as we previously did. He is due back in school next week and we honestly don’t know whether he should go.

We feel let down by the government who have consistently given mixed messages and provided concepts of solutions without the means for our medical services to actually implement them, in our case they have agreed to vaccinate vulnerable young people but haven’t said how.

We feel let down by the Rotherham Council who in this week’s Covid bulletin say “For those aged five-11 years, vaccination is currently being offered to those who are clinically vulnerable” and we should follow the Rotherham Clinical Commissioning Group Facebook page to find out more about vaccination sessions.

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We called them and they told me there wasn’t anything available for under 12s at the moment and “have I tried calling 119 or asking our GP”!

We feel as though our son has fallen through the cracks and no matter how loud we shout no one is listening. He has been failed by this system.

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