Top tips for attending vaccine clinic...
In the vaccine clinic I'm working in we've moved-on to people who are more or less my age (mid 50's), and I suspect many forumites are similar and will be being jabbed soon. Soooo....
- Bring your NHS number with you - it's on your letter - it speeds-up the booking-in process. See also your contact phone number.
- Wear clothes that let us get to the top of your arm without extraordinary disrobing, huffing or puffing.
- Bring a list of any other medications you are on. Take your medication as normal. Have food/drink as normal before you come - most of the people who feel a bit light-headed after their vaccine haven't eaten or drunk that morning.
- We want to know about allergies, in particular previous reactions to medications, food etc. Don't keep this information to yourself! If you have an Epipen, bring it with you (amazing how many don't).
- Remember it's a conveyor-belt! Unless you have good reason for slowing-down the flow please just keep moving - it appears to me that half the over-50 population now self-identifies as either an epidemiologist or immunolugist and is keen to share their insights with clinic staff. I had a queue outside my room yesterday while a vaccinee expounded at length on previous vaccinations he'd had
. Onward!
- If you need special treatment tell us. A patient fainted in our clinic recently, no harm done but causes some alarm. Afterwards he told us he always faints after injections. We'd have treated him differently if we'd known.
- There isn't a staff coffee room in the country that isn't improved by gifts of small shareable items of snackable food. Just saying...