Since Boris Johnson announced the target number of booster jabs was one million a day, I volunteered to help out at the Bay Medical, who turned Shanklin Medical Centre into a Covid centre.

I was asked to help on December 21, 22 and 28. On each day the clinic was staffed by full-time staff and volunteers.

It was great to be able to help out the doctors’ practices which have looked after my wife and I so very well since we moved to Apse Heath from Newport five years ago.

I’m writing as I want people to know how disappointed I am to see so many missed appointments for a simple injection.

All three days I was at the centre around a quarter of people with an appointment failed to turn up. A large number of these had booked their own appointment online.

A large number of the morning missed appointments were contacted, some of these said they would attend in the afternoon, so were re-listed but again failed to attend.

It also leads to wasted vaccine.

My big complaint is so often the media are reporting how hard it is for the public to get an appointment for their boosters, yet here we have an appalling apathy which deprives genuine people who want or need their boosters and can’t get an appointment.

To run a Covid clinic costs a lot of money the NHS can’t afford.

The Shanklin clinic is closed for normal duties, causing some people difficulty as their appointments are moved to Sandown wherever possible.

The staff at Sandown are put under greater pressure to deal with the increased workload and it is inevitable some patients aren’t going to get appointments as soon as they would like be that by phone or face-to-face.

I doubt the people who are too thoughtless and or lazy to either phone in to cancel their Covid appointment or even bother to attend to get a free injection that is for the good of everyone not just themselves are likely to read this letter, but hopefully they’ll get the message.

People are giving their time to help OUR community so please have the decency to make use of the Covid clinics and get injected.

If you don’t want to attend your appointment then let the centre know so they can book in those who do.

Please respect the people who are doing their best to help either with Covid injections or trying to work hard to maintain a health service in very difficult circumstances.

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