Health chiefs make plea for patience over flu jab furore

Our readers were quick to come forward - and add to the growing list of perceived faults with the system.

We have learned that a number of them received their letter with the date of the schedule appointment after the event.

Some too have told us that they then tried to get access to a telephone booking line to no avail.

And there were also fears expressed that older patients were being left at the back of the queue while patients several decades their junior had been attended to.

We put these concerns to NHS Lanarkshire whose associate medical director for health and social care, Dr Mark Russell said: ”We would like to reassure the public that everyone who is eligible, will receive an appointment for their vaccination.

“We are aware of patients who have received their letter after their scheduled appointment.

“We would like to apologise and encourage people to call the number on their letter to re-book their appointment.

“As the programme progresses, we are looking at different ways to contact patients, not just by letter.

“We are receiving a high number of calls to our re-booking line and are increasing the number of call handlers to help meet this demand.

“We are appealing for your patience and understanding when making these calls.

“Since it is a national system, we are limited with the changes we can make to existing processes.

“However, we are exploring local alternatives to target the higher risk groups in the over 65 cohort of patients and are already contacting these people.

“There have been a number of challenges with delivering this year’s flu programme and we are working to rectify these. We are learning and adapting our processes as we move forward.”