Giant shemozzle with the vaccination rollout in the public hospital system, surprise surprise.
I first got my email inviting me to make my appointment on Monday. I didn’t see the email for half an hour, and by the time I looked at the booking system, all the appointments were already taken at my hospital for March. I couldn’t get the system to roll over to April so in a rush of panic and FOMO, I made an appointment for Friday night at a satellite hospital out of town. By the time I got the confirmation email, I’d decided that was a dumb idea, but luckily there was a system embedded in the email to change your appointment. Incredibly it seemed some new appointments had opened up in my hospital, so I grabbed one of those. “Your rebooking has been successful!” According to the website but strangely I never got a confirmation email about the newsletter date. So, did I now have two appointments, or one (and where??) or maybe even none. Never mind – there was an email address to write to if you had any trouble with the booking process. I wrote, explaining my problem. And boy were they prompt and helpful! All sorted by return email! Ha ha as if – possibly in a parallel universe, but not this one. I waited for days for a reply, while all my colleagues talked about their easily made appointments that they’d made for next week.
I finally got a reply yesterday. The supposed new appointment was merely a mirage – the only booking I had was for Friday evening across town. I decided to try and change for another appointment at my own hospital next week, but of course by now there were no slots left for weeks. Even worse, my husband started bragging that he had an appointment for next week, so he was the winner in the family. Obviously I couldn’t be having that. It’s not that I’m competitive, it’s just that I like to always be first.
So here I am, spending my Friday evening in the bowels of an unfamiliar hospital. However, I’m considering myself lucky – the woman who pushed ahead of me in the queue has just been told she doesn’t have a booking, and she’ll have to leave without her vaccination today. Apparently a large number of staff got an email last night saying their booking date had been changed and they should just turn up today. They’ve all been sent away as there just isn’t enough of the vaccine here. That would be just infuriating.
…
Done! I win!
