'Flu Jab Today

I fall into a group which is called 'vulnerable' when it comes to such things as 'flu, so I get an annual jab about this time every year, because I've had a heart attack as well as being over he age of 60. Ashfield Medical Centre in Beanhill, which is where I'm registered as a patient, runs two Saturday clinics for these 'flu jabs, one being today, 23rd September and the second on 14th October, between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m. No good if I'm going to be ill as I'll be no use to Carol if I'm incapacitated so I make the most of this. Thank goodness for the N.H.S. It may have it's faults, but if you had to pay for a 'flu jab it can cost from around £6 to £12. I went along to the surgery at 7.45 this morning and parked ready and waiting and then found a quite considerable queue of people waiting outside the surgery. As soon as the door was opened everyone flocked inside and we had to register with one of two receptionists and I was called through to Dr Cassidy and the jab was administered fast and efficiently and I was out and driving home by 8.15. How is it they can run these clinics so well yet you can be sitting around for a couple of hours as we did in the endoscopy department the other day? We think perhaps they were short staffed when we were there. The C.T. scan which Carol had on Thursday was done very quickly with the minimum amount of waiting. 

'Flu Jabs and Shopping

We both have 'flu jabs each autumn. Having had a heart attack, I am what's called 'vulnerable' in that a bad dose of 'flu could be dangerous. I have had one, free on the N.H.S. each autumn, for around the last 10 years or thereabouts. As Carol has been diagnosed as diabetic, she is also covered by the 'free 'flu jab' system.  They do give the staff at Milton Keynes Academy 'flu vaccine jabs, but they don't have them until much too late,  in November, which means that she would be vulnerable to getting a dose of 'flu well before then. It takes around two weeks to be effective, apparently. She had booked this  few weeks ago to be done at Sainsbury's pharmacy but she came along with me this morning to Ashfield Medical Centre because they had run their 'flu clinic this morning as they do each year. It was today and then on the 22nd October (actually my birthday.) We arrived outside the surgery at 7.45 to find quite a considerable queue forming. Rather than sit in the car it seemed better to join the queue and by 7.58 this has stretched across the carpark. Once the doors had opened we had to be signed in at reception and people were being called in to be 'jabbed' by the staff more or less immediately. My name eventually came up on the digital display and I went into the nurse's room along the corridor. I had to sit down and have my blood pressure take (which is showing quite normal along with my heart rate.) The nurse gave me the 'flu vaccine, done very efficiently and I never felt anything. I walked out to wait near the car for Carol to appear a minute or two later. She had been given a prescription for more eye ointment, as given to her by the nurse who gave her the 'flu vaccine jab. 

From the doctor's surgery we drove directly to Sainsbury's to do our usual weekly shop. It has to be the earliest we've ever done the shopping and was around 8.30 when we eventually got there. As the supermarket was virtually empty of other shoppers it meant we could get in and out exceptionally fast, avoiding the queues at the checkout.