Swansea Bay NHS releases message after people fail to turn up for vaccinations

Swansea Bay NHS has said that they have experienced a sharp rise in the number of people failing to turn up for appointments at Mass Vaccination Centres.

In a Facebook post, the health board said that by 2pm on Monday, there had been 60 DNAs (did not attend) at the Bay Field Hospital alone. Overall, 6.5% of people booked in at the field hospital did not attend.

The health board said that these appointments had not been cancelled with the booking centre.

"Faced with mounting spare vaccines which had to be used yesterday or thrown away, our staff volunteered to stay late to use up the vaccine on people called in at very short notice from our reserve list," the health board said in the Facebook post.

The health board urged people to contact their booking centre if they were unable to attend an appointment or did not want the vaccine.

Rebecca Evans, MS for Gower, responded to the announcement on Twitter saying: "Frustrating to hear that 6.5% of people booked in for vaccination at the Bay Hospital in Swansea yesterday did not attend.

"Please contact the booking centre (the no. is on your appointment letter) if you cannot make your appointment or do not want the vaccine.

"Thank you to everyone who – faced with mounting spare vaccines which had to be used yesterday or thrown away – volunteered to stay late to use up the vaccine on people called in at very short notice from the reserve list."

Swansea residents took to Facebook to respond to the health board's post.

"That's dreadful! Do people not realise that there are so many of us desperately waiting to get our vaccinations? Such a waste of time and money! I would be there at the drop of a hat," wrote Sharon Owens.

"Is there a cancellation list that people can go on? I work in a school and I would gladly go on a cancellation list, instead of the vaccine going to waste," another resident wrote.

As of Monday, the health board says that they have delivered 54,702 vaccines in total, with more than 90% of care home residents in the area having been vaccinated.

The health board said that 79% of the over 80s group and 73% of the over 75s group have been vaccinated so far.