RogerBW's Blog

Less perforation, more perfer et obdura 27 April 2021

(Guest post from Gus.)

Put down your chow mein now. I only say that because the friend to whom I chose first to vent inhaled some of hers: apparently that's rather painful.

Dutiful citizen that I sometimes am, I did finally get registered with a GP. Four local practices pointed me in the direction of the one surgery up with whom I refuse to sign (the nearest and husband-killing one). If only the Big Road were a railway: wrong side of the tracks has more of a ring to it, somehow. But I lucked out with the fifth practice, since the phone was answered by the woman who manages registrations and who recognised my address as being only just out of their catchment area. Or whatever it is called; they aren't a school.

This very particular practice isn't doing vaccinations at the moment, which is fine by me. They might actually be looking after patients with non-Covid problems: that would be nice. Once my registration was confirmed, back to the online booking site I went and was not unduly surprised to find it still didn't recognise my existence. Left it a few days and tried again. Result as before. 119 said this was nothing untoward and to give it a fortnight.

After slightly more than a fortnight, I tried yet again. Yay! I got through to a page with big, friendly radio buttons which asked me if I work in healthcare, social care or neither. Neither. The next, not-friendly-at-all page told me I am ineligible for a vaccine at present. Now, it can't be age: I am a dozen years, give or take, into the chronological cohort now being jabbed.

Back to the helpline again, sergeant… The patient and confidence-inspiring Majeed flagged a fault on the system while comforting me with the fact that 'at least it now recognises you as a person, Gus!'. He suggests I keep trying and either further data will trickle through to them (what further data? It recognises my personhood and, probably more importantly, my 10-digit NHS number which I now know by heart) or the fault will be rectified and 'we'll meet in the middle'.

Whether or not I am holding my breath, I leave as an exercise for the reader. It could yet come down to a leopard-proofed letter to Otterbourne.

Oh and it turns out that this Friday and Saturday, there was a pop-up, walk-in vaccination clinic in my borough… Which I found out about on Sunday afternoon. Hence the venting and the half-choked dear friend. This is becoming a serious public health issue, dammit!

Comments on this post are now closed. If you have particular grounds for adding a late comment, comment on a more recent post quoting the URL of this one.

Search
Archive
Tags 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 3d printing action advent of code aeronautics aikakirja anecdote animation anime army astronomy audio audio tech aviation base commerce battletech beer boardgaming book of the week bookmonth chain of command children chris chronicle church of no redeeming virtues cold war comedy computing contemporary cornish smuggler cosmic encounter coup covid-19 crime cthulhu eternal cycling dead of winter doctor who documentary drama driving drone ecchi economics en garde espionage essen 2015 essen 2016 essen 2017 essen 2018 essen 2019 essen 2022 essen 2023 existential risk falklands war fandom fanfic fantasy feminism film firefly first world war flash point flight simulation food garmin drive gazebo genesys geocaching geodata gin gkp gurps gurps 101 gus harpoon historical history horror hugo 2014 hugo 2015 hugo 2016 hugo 2017 hugo 2018 hugo 2019 hugo 2020 hugo 2022 hugo-nebula reread in brief avoid instrumented life javascript julian simpson julie enfield kickstarter kotlin learn to play leaving earth linux liquor lovecraftiana lua mecha men with beards mpd museum music mystery naval noir non-fiction one for the brow opera parody paul temple perl perl weekly challenge photography podcast politics postscript powers prediction privacy project woolsack pyracantha python quantum rail raku ranting raspberry pi reading reading boardgames social real life restaurant reviews romance rpg a day rpgs ruby rust scala science fiction scythe second world war security shipwreck simutrans smartphone south atlantic war squaddies stationery steampunk stuarts suburbia superheroes suspense television the resistance the weekly challenge thirsty meeples thriller tin soldier torg toys trailers travel type 26 type 31 type 45 vietnam war war wargaming weather wives and sweethearts writing about writing x-wing young adult
Special All book reviews, All film reviews
Produced by aikakirja v0.1