Hi @Ismo good news about your vaccination centre (although I am a pilates fan and always wanted to try badminton).
Yes, you should be doubly prioritised and so should I !!
Let us know what happens
I had a text message Tuesday 28th September from NHS to book the booster jab via a link. They also provided a phone number so I rang and explained I should get the third primary dose and not the booster. After some discussion this was understood and appointment arranged for yesterday. Arriving at the vaccination centre I still had to tell 3 different staff I had come for 3rd primary dose. Whether this will be correctly recorded and not a booster have to wait and see (same Pfizer dosage anyway) as their IT system not yet setup to allow this. Should get the actual booster in 6 months time but much could change vaccine wise in that time I guess! My next step will be to take another antibody test in 4 weeks as my previous Pfizer jabs produced no detectable antibodies.
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Hi all, just wanted to make you aware of our new blog - What should you do if you have blood cancer and cannot get a third Covid vaccine dose? | Blood Cancer UK. With many people reporting issues with the rollout of third doses of the vaccine, we’ve set out what you can do right now to try to get your third dose if you have not already been invited for it.
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Hi TeePee
Great to have someone on my wavelength- patience isn’t my strong point but it does help, and like you I am thinking that the more time that elapses after treatment the better the chances of a good response to the vaccine- just hope we don’t get COVID in the meantime 
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I got a text last week asking me to email the practice for a third dose and insisting that this was not a booster and I should be getting one of those too. I managed to set it up but it was chaotic at the practice as they didn’t seem to be expecting anyone in my position and I didn’t get a confirmation card like last time. I also think the admin girl recorded it wrong on my record. I did have it though and having gotten away unscathed last time I had quite bad side effects this time and spent all of Friday in bed. I had Pfizer this time and had had Astra Zeneca previously.
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Hi ISMO. I think we are higher up the priority list this time as i have received texts and emails saying I am in a priority group for the booster. I have ignored this bit as my gp has agreed i need the 3rd primary. The links on the texts and emails definitely say they are boosters for the over 50s in the detail but if i we are being included now, at the same time as my dad who is 93, i think we have some priority. Hope you get a notice soon.
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How do you go about getting an antibody test ?
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Hi @Anne-Marie, I haven’t had one but my suggestions would be:
Check if you can get one through your medical team free
Check either you local pharmacy do them or search on the internet.
There is talk about the different information and in what format they each provide.
What do the results tell you, how many antibodies do you need and if you have any antibodies how effective are they compared with a ‘healthy’ persons results.
This is why I haven’t taken a test!!!
There is a thread on this forum about antibody tests.
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@Anne-Marie, me again the thread on here is called
Which covid antibody test to get?
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So… I got my third primary dose yesterday. Here’s my understanding of what the situation is, and the process I used to get it. Most hospital or clinic based vaccination centres are familiar with the third dose, but the systems that they use, (Pinnacle or NIMs) do not yet have the functionality rolled out to record a third dose. Understandably, they are reluctant to give out a third dose unless they can record it somewhere. Also, they are continually being told that the system upgrade to record these doses is imminent.
However… the functionality to record booster doses is available. There seems to be a growing consensus that it’s OK to use the booster dose field to record the third dose, and then when the system has the third dose field rolled out, they can either edit the record, or use the third dose field to record the booster dose.
There is a field in the vaccination record called “Clinical Notes and Advice” in which my vaccinator entered “Patient due third dose but Pinnacle has not been updated yet to enter this record. Therefore, entering it as booster and for this record to be updated to third dose when the system has been updated”
So, to get a third dose…
- Get a letter from your GP or consultant saying that you are in the category for a third dose, (template letter at the back of the 1399 letter from the JCVI
- Print out the 1399 letter and take it with you.
- Go to the governments “find a walk in vaccination clinic page”. Choose one that is attached to a GP clinic or hospital, most pharmacists are less well informed and more cautious
- Ask to see someone and talk them through what needs to happen.
Hopefully, they will be OK.
Of course all this may have been overtaken by events if the third dose functionality has been rolled out by the time your read this!
Good luck.
Nick
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I received my third booster jab last Friday following a text message from NHS inviting me to make an appointment. (I was diagnosed with Follicular Lymphoma stage 3/4 in 2004 and despite a couple of relapses am still living life to the full) Please be aware there MUST BE 26 weeks between your 2nd vaccine and your booster. Also received a message from my local surgery saying they are receiving high volume of calls with enquiries and over the coming weeks will invite by text to book in.
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NHS England have announced that all people due a 3rd primary will be contacted and offered an appointment by 11th October. No apology for the complete mess has been issued and time will tell if this actually happens.
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User name shod be love. It was predictive text! I got my vaccine OK. Not as well organised as the previous 2 which I had at the local hospital. Its a good job it wasnt raining as I had to queue standing in the for 30 minutes. Pleased to get it though.
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Hi @ilivesunshine, glad you got your vaccine but that wait was a long time standing and distancing. Look after yourself and please keep posting.
Hi
I have only just been pointed at this forum though I have been communicating with BC UK for some time. Like many I had to argue with the GP Practice Manager to get added to the Shielding list. I am also in Scotland and after the 01/09/21 announcement got fed up with waiting and contacted GP but was told they are not doing any - yes any -immunisations (!)and they kept referring to Boosters. Finally following the NHS Scotland published the JCVI instructions and much nagging I finally was accepted by the Dumfries & Galloway team and yesterday was promised an appointment… so back to waiting. Even the BBC referred to the Third dose as a Booster today - but at least they are talking about it…
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Hi a great big welcome @UncleRoy and I am glad that you have been pointed towards this forum.
It is interesting to hear what NHS Scotland is or is not doing about the further vaccines, please let us know if you do get an appointment date through and how it goes.
So grateful to Blood Cancer UK for getting behind this rollout issue and highlighting it to the NHS and media. Seeing it on the BBC today was such a relief. I’ve felt utterly helpless up until now. Praying that the new 11th Oct deadline to be offered a 3rd dose doesn’t pass like Sept 13th and that shielding can finally end. Perhaps in a couple of weeks we’ll all have had our jabs. And of course hoping that they will work.
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Just to say thanks @njames879 for your excellent suggestions which I have used this morning and got my third primary dose. I am a Myeloproliferative Neoplasm patient and Myeloproliferative Neoplasm Voice have provided a condition specific letter (very similar to the lovely BCUK one) which I used and then followed your suggestions to the letter ! My city walk in vaccination centre were brilliant - not one of them had heard of third primary programme all the way through the levels of staff but my Myeloproliferative Neoplasm Voice letter spoke for me - they could not have been kinder or more helpful - and interested in hearing all about the programme and why so important for blood cancer patients. Isn’t it sad that genuine staff working for the NHS at a mass vaccination centre have to hear of this from a patient and her charity letter? I did as you said regarding recoding manually in the IT system (still no third dose update on it 
) and felt armed with good information from all you suggested so that I am well recorded on the system as having had a third dose and why -so THANK YOU!!
Sad we have had to take getting this into our own hands, there must be so many patients that would find that hard to do, very let done by this situation. Thank goodness for efficient and caring charities such as your good selves and Myeloproliferative Neoplasm Voice
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M P N Voice and M P N was typed - silly automatic correction
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3rd vaccine in the arm! GP hub worked efficiently and I was able to discuss immunocompromised state before being given the jab. System alerted but still unable to be recorded as a 3rd jab but NHS record states it is and it’s on my card. I’m also hoping that the letter from the consultant is on its way to the GP so by the time 6 months is up, if we indeed get a booster, all the dots will be joined up.
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