more of that red tape

About six weeks ago I had a text message quite out of the blue from our health board inviting me to get a third covid jab.

Excellent, I thought.

Then I got another, identical one an hour later.  And then a letter and explanatory leaflet (in Welsh and English) the following day before getting another two texts on the morning of my appointment.

sometimes more is better :-)

So, when I turned up at my allotted time only to be told that the staff were on a lunch break and could I come back in half an hour, I proudly showed the young attendant the plethora of communications confirming the date and time of my appointment.  His response was a shrug of the shoulders and a reminder to politely clear off.

And when I did eventually go back in, it was with a crowd of people with similar appointment times to mine as well as those attending at the proper time for them.  And I don't like crowds for obvious reasons.

Anyway, while then sitting in line I was given the same leaflet (in both languages) I was given with my letter, explaining why I was there.  Presumably in case I'd forgotten or just wandered in thinking I was going to the bingo and therefore somewhat confused.

After I did finally get my jab I was told I'd need another one in another six months.  I bit my lip at this stage for fear of letting them know just how inefficient and probably unnecessarily expensive this whole episode had been.

And I had a post-jab headache too.

Contrast this with my experience at my excellent GP surgery just 5 days later when I went in for my flu jab.  I was in a minute before my allotted appointment and back in the car within a minute after it.  Now that's efficiency!