Covid Vaccine for 12-15 Year olds living with immunocompromosed adults

COVID-19 (Coronavirus)
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Good afternoon all. I was just wondering if anybody had any experience of their children receiving the vaccine?
I am currently waiting to hear back from my GP. They initially passed me on to 119 who said it was the GP I needed to talk to.
I have completed an online consultation form but am yet to hear. I will chase them tomorrow as it’s been over a week!
In the meantime I just thought it would be useful to hear from others to find out how they had gone about booking it or if they were having any trouble?

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Oh @Nichola75, so, so topical, I bet you are not the only one being pushed from pillar to post.

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hi re the vaccine for children . I have SMZL & had a splenectomy ,& live with my daughter & grandchildren aged 12 & 14 in Scotland.I contacted the vaccine help line 08000308013 2 weeks ago & a very helpful person told me I could register them with him .ASked for nameaddress GP & dob ,took a couple of minutes & told they were then registered & would receive appts . 48 hrs later received a text appointment for them in 4 days time.They had their vaccine & apart from slightly sore arm no ill effects
Not sure if same system in England but worth a call to the helpline Hope this info is useful .Good luck !

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That’s really helpful. Thank you so much. I hope you are well X

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Hi @Nichola75, the latest comms from Department of Health are still saying: Children aged 12 to 15 who are clinically vulnerable to COVID-19 or who live with adults who are at increased risk of serious illness from the virus are also being contacted by the NHS and invited for their vaccine by 23 August, ahead of the new school year.

There are a few other routes for outside of England.

I hope this helpful, do reach out to us if the support team can be of any help.
Bav

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Hi folks - my 13yr old got his vaccination in Scotland on Thurs past. Unlike the previous person from Scotland whose grandkids got done without much hassle - I’m so pleased that was your experience. Mine was the complete opposite! Coincidentally, my husband has the same blood cancer too!

I registered my son Aug 1 as soon as it was possible to do so. Had heard nothing a week later, enquired with vaccination helpline who advised my health board (also my employer) would be in touch. Waited another week and still no word - this was also the day he returned to school. We were aware of 3 other kids who had already been done and didn’t know what they problem was. I was then passed from pillar to post for 3 solid days and I mean hrs at a time. Helpline could no longer help even though health board said they hadn’t sent over his details, they said they could not re register him. Health board kept saying they didn’t have his details. Helpline then gave me exact electronic date stamp registration was sent over. Then the fun and games really began.

Health board said hubby had to be on immunosuppression meds (he’s not but is permanently immunocompromised), then said there was no record of my son being connected to such a person, then said kids weren’t being done yet, then said 550 appts had been sent out to this cohort and lots went unfilled, then that there were no plans to organise any further clinics. This was info given to me over a 5-6hr period - it changed with each call. Gp surgery for involved eventually and contacted health board directly who said they couldn’t discuss it with them! …,… But I got a call that evening with an appt for the next morning!

I’m still not sure if it was the GP surgery involvement or my threat to go to the local media etc that worked. But I can tell you everyone in this house wept buckets over a system that did not work as it should have. I sincerely hope this isn’t widespread as others would perhaps have given up sooner.

My friend is a nurse in Glasgow and she was able to speak to colleagues about what was happening in the neighbouring health board and they were willing to do him and take any flack. We were lucky that we had that option if necessary.

So it’s resolved and it went fine for him - no side effects whatsoever. And a very grateful boy who feels that, when fully protected, he can act better as a shield for a dad he adores.

I hope folk get sorted. Best wishes to you all

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Hi Bav, thanks for the info. So I should have heard from the NHS by today. I’m in London so just assuming I will need to chase my GP?

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Hi Sorry to hear of your struggle to get your son vaccinated.Seems as though we were fortunate to have no problems at all. Hope your husband is doing okay , I have a better quality of life since my stem cell transplant, which I had after failure of 6 different types of chemo& feel really cheated that at a point when I should have been able to start to get on with life the virus halted everything . Hopefully we will eventually feel safe enough to go out . Good luck to you all .

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Hopefully things will get better soon. Really good to hear you are feeling better after your stem cell. Take care and stay safe X

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Hi @Nichola75 yes we’d encourage you to go back to your GP. If you’re having trouble with this then taking to the Practice Manager.

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Thanks Alice - will keep you updated!

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Yes please do, good luck!

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I’ve been having similar issues. I have 4 children 2 of which are over 18 and have managed to get vaccinated. My 2 other children are 13 and 15 and despite asking my GP surgery how to sort this out all I got was an email stating:

We are no longer involved in the vaccination programme hence why we haven’t been able to book your children in – even though the NHS website states a GP practice can do this – it is not actually always the case. Regarding 12-17 year olds, there is new guidance coming out all the time and I have been informed that the National Booking System will soon be contacting the families of immunosuppressed patients in this age group to arrange consent and vaccination appointments. If you have questions about the vaccination programme it is always best to contact 119 or browse the NHS website.

Of course when you ring 119 they say it has to go through the GPs as they are the only ones to be able to tell who lives in the same address as me.

I just called and left a message for the GP practice manager so will see what happens. I may resort to logging a complaint (although I’ve no idea how that works).

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Hi @Stuart and welcome to the forum. Thanks for sharing this. It’s really useful. It’s so frustrating isn’t it. It seems really unclear for everybody!
Please let me know how you get on with the practice manager. That’s my next step depending on what I hear back following my email.
How are you keeping at the moment?

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How frustrating for you and your children Stuart, let us know how you get on with the Practice Manager. A warm welcome to this forum! May I ask how you’ve been getting on?

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Hi @Stuart a great big welcome and that you have found us and realised that you are not alone in being pushed from pillar to post to get your 13 and 15yr old vaccinated.
It all seems so easy when the government announce this as a good news story in the media.
Yes, your Practice Manager sounds the next step.
Please do let us know how you get on and I look forward to hearing more about you @Stuart.
Take care and please keep posting.

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Yes, @Thelimes you deserve to feel cheated you must have been isolating for so long.
How have you coped with isolating for all that time and how are you doing now?

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Hi Nicholas 75
I just received a letter today from my GP practice, inviting my 15-year-old in for vaccination because I am ‘severely immunosuporessed’ (I thought I was just immunocompromised, but maybe they haven’t caught up with my medical history!) I hadn’t chased this invitation because my surgery does seem to contact me when they are ready - so maybe your invitation for your children will be imminent? Hope so.
All the best
Fullofbeans

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Thanks @Fullofbeans :crossed_fingers:I hear something soon. Glad your invite came through for your son. I need to look up the difference between those descriptions! :blush:

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I think immunosuppressed means your immune system is deliberately suppressed by medication for some conditions, e.g. cyclosporin post-stem cell transplant, or solid organ transplant, and medications for autoimmune diseases eg rheumatoid arthritis. The medications are to suppress the immune system so organs are not rejected, or to prevent your own immune system attacking your body.

Then immunocompromised means a weakened immune system, which could happen after cancer treatments, various illnesses etc. Not suppressed deliberately and to the point of barely working, but as a side effect of something, and with some ability to still work.

So I was immunosuppressed for a while, whilst taking cyclosporin after a stem cell transplant. But I’m off that medication now, so my new immune system should now be considered immunocompromised, because it is immature and hasn’t met many bugs yet, to develop antibodies against, and so isn’t very strong. But hopefully in a bit of time, I will get over that, and have a good immune system, and no immune labels. I hope that helps with working out where you stand.

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