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Shielding letters and vaccines

tigger

Well-Known Member
Messages
569
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
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registrars asking silly questions
Hi

I have type 1. I just got a shielding letter as part of the next wave. Does anyone know how to get a vaccine?

What I'm hearing round here is it depends largely on who your GP is - some put people forward for any reason (I'm available at shrot notice for leftovers) and others say it's nothing to do with us. My GP is the nothing to do with us band. I tried doing it through the general website but it said I'm not eligible. I called them and they said that's because my GP hasn't activated my status. Is this another great type 1 diabetes vanishes overnight again......

I've called my GP and emailed the letter as they asked but they just say they don't do anything which is really stressful.

Does anyone know how to fix this?

I'm all for waiting my turn quietly but not when it looks like I could be missing out on it entirely!!
 
Do you see a diabetes team at the hospital? Maybe they could help. Or could you ask to speak to the practice manager at the GP, and if refused write a letter of complaint.
 
My GP seems to be taking the same 'ignore and make it someone else's problem' approach
 

Hi Tigger, what priority would you have been initially if you don't mind me asking? I was wondering who would be in the 'new' category of shielders, did your letter give specifics as to why to shield? A shielding letter would help me in my negotiations for work adjustments but I don't think I'm getting one. x
 
From the papers, new shielding letters have been issued to newly classified persons who are clinically extremely vulnerable who are eligible for the vaccine straight away. Make a phone appointment with your GP and send them a copy of your letter.
 

Hi, I had my vaccine jab on the 8th February, ( much earlier than expected) but never had a shielding letter, or ever likely to.
I messaged my Gp practice back in January regrading shielding and I received a message which said, I am at moderate/ medium risk !
 

I seem to be in the same boat, I'm nearly 63 as well. Seems to be Type 1 is being swept under the carpet again.
Not important.
 
Circuspony said:
My GP seems to be taking the same 'ignore and make it someone else's problem' approach
Click to expand...

!00% concur with you.
If some are being put on the shielding list, there's a reason for that, one for all etc, plus age comes into it too.
 

Hi it doesn't say but apparently they simply run an algorithm. I have type 1, I'm over 40, not obese but not underweight. I suspect those factors together put me higher up than others. I would have been band 6 without this - 16-64 underlying condition.

@ert I've sent the letter to the GP and tried to make an appt. I'm also trying friends who are doctors to see if I can get in elsewhere if my GP is just not coping with the paperwork at the moment. This isn't the first time this year they've been really poor about something else and I don't want to raise a complaint every time.

Thanks for the advice everyone
 
Well I hit those points as well but I've not been told to shield, afaik I'm still group 6.
 
Rokaab said:
Well I hit those points as well but I've not been told to shield, afaik I'm still group 6.
Click to expand...
Interesting! Maybe it's where I live that flips the algorithm. I hope you get it soon!
 
tigger said:
Interesting! Maybe it's where I live that flips the algorithm. I hope you get it soon!
Click to expand...

Hello Trigger, I had my covid jab yesterday. My GP sent a text and then I made the appointment. I live in Sheffield, I'm 61 been Type 1 for 57 years so don't know if any of these are factored into it. I've never had a letter telling me to shield, but I know some Diabetic T1's have that are a lot younger than I am. Who knows how they work these things out because I'm sure I don't. Take care
 
tigger said:
Interesting! Maybe it's where I live that flips the algorithm. I hope you get it soon!
Click to expand...

Here is an article on the changes. It looks like even though they are shielding they are still group 6 rather than group 4:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56086965
"It comes after a new model was developed that takes into account extra factors rather than just health.

This calculation includes things such as ethnicity, deprivation (by postcode) and weight to work out a person's risk of becoming seriously ill if they were to catch Covid.

It also looks at age, underlying health issues and prescribed medications.

Prof Andrew Hayward, a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), which has been involved in the modelling, said it considered a "combination of factors" such as age, ethnicity and chronic illness and put them together to reach a score."
 
Sorry for the error in your name, predictive text aarrggghhh!!!
 
Same here, I was told the same
 

I used that algorithm and it gave me a score of 78/100 with 100 being the highest risk, I'm 59, normal BMI, BAME too which added a few points, and priority 6. Heard nothing at all yet. Once again it seems to be down to the opinions of individual GPs rather than any consistency. For anyone interested, have a play with the QCovid algorithm they are using, add some conditions you haven't got, change your age and up the weight etc, add a different ethnicity if you like and it is STILL impossible as far as I can tell to get above the 80/100 score. The extremely vulnerable appear to be categorised as 'need to shield' if they score 98 plus. It puzzles me because to get to that high score you surely would already have been categorised as clinically extremely vulnerable.
 

Sigh. I have had to look very closely into this because my personal risk is exacerbated by my job (and like Jon Snow, they know nothing). The category we come into is 'high risk'. High risk consists of 2 levels of risk, 'extremely clinically vulnerable' and 'clinically vulnerable' The latter is then described as 'moderate' relative to the former, but in context that means 'moderately high risk within the high risk category'!! It does not mean moderate risk comparative to the general public. I really wish they would get their act together over this because when you have GPs that cannot understand risk, what chance has the general public or HR Depts got.
 

A huge big sigh from me. The problem, I believe in many cases it that we as type 1's are still considered to be young when diagnosed as a child or teen. It really frustrates me and annoys me at the lack of care for people with Type 1.
I had to go to hospital couple of weeks ago, problem with my eye, anyway in A&E, I told the nurse I had diabetes and she said, Type 2? I said no, why did you ask that, she said, because type 1 happens in children blah blah blah, No I said it can happen to all ages, so please don't assume and always best to ask what type. She just looked at me.
As a Type 1, I have aged, and it happens every year so we do get older.
I'm so fed up with the medical profession. I have read many links about the affects of Covid 19 for people with diabetes, even the lancet.
Why I got my vaccine earlier than expected, I don't know.
 
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