Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Chaos during flu jab sessions at north-east GP surgery

Post Thumbnail

A north-east GP surgery was plunged into chaos after staff struggled to cope with the demand for the winter flu jab.

Queues snaked out the door at the Elmbank Group Practice on Westburn Road in Aberdeen when more than 1,000 patients turned up on Saturday.

And some were even given a weaker vaccination than promised after running out of serum.

Pensioner Bill Rodgers was one of those affected.

He said: “No-one could explain to those queuing – some for at least 40 minutes – why there was such a problem.

“My wife and I, who are in our early 80s, joined the queue at 11.25am for our slot and did not re-emerge until 12.15pm.

“The doctors and nurses tried to do what they could, and thankfully the weather was kind for those who had to queue outside.

“But the NHS has made great play that those over 75 will receive a different jab to those under that age.

“Sadly, when my wife and I were eventually seen to, the over 75s serum had run out and we had to make do with the lesser strain.

“It’s not a good advert after all the fuss made about it by NHS Scotland.

“Those who attended are surely entitled to some explanation as to why there was such a debacle.”

An Elmbank Group Practice spokesman said: “We are sorry for any inconvenience caused.

“Unfortunately on this occasion more patients attended than usual, at a time when various staff members were unable to be present.

“This meant patients were left waiting longer than we would like, due to the more complicated tiered system of flu vaccinations.

“Our staff worked tirelessly to see to everyone who could wait, and our auxiliary team scoured the queue to help those with mobility issues navigate to the front.

“By the end of the session, we had given vaccinations to more than 1,000 patients.”

He added: “All patients who either could not attend on this date, or could not wait to be seen, are welcome to phone the practice to arrange a time when they can have their vaccination.”