Around 7,000 Covid-19 vaccinations were wrongly scheduled in Fife this week because of an IT glitch.
Health minister Jeane Freeman said an issue with the national scheduling system led to hundreds of pensioners queueing in freezing temperatures for several hours on Monday.
NHS Fife is one of the first boards to use the new booking system, which will be rolled out across the country by the end of the week.
Meanwhile, scores of over 80s have been told to ignore letters sent to them in error telling them to come to a community clinic for their first dose of the vaccine.
The letters in blue envelopes have caused mass confusion as Fife’s over 80s have already received jabs at GP practices and will soon be invited for their second dose.
Affected people are being contacted directly.
Ms Freeman and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon have both apologised for the chaos, calling the situation “unacceptable”.
It shouldn’t happen.”
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
An elderly woman is understood to have collapsed with suspected hypothermia as she waited outside a vaccination clinic in Lochgelly on Monday morning.
Long queues also formed outside venues in Kirkcaldy, Buckhaven, Glenrothes and Anstruther.
Some clinics are over-booked until next Monday and extra vaccinators were drafted in to help on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Scottish Ambulance Service has been asked to provide extra support and mobile units could be set up.
A number of appointments for Thursday through to Monday are being rescheduled and people should receive updated letters on Wednesday.
There was no repeat of the queues outside the clinics on Tuesday.
Despite the issues, some 5,000 Fifers were vaccinated on Monday – the highest number in a single day in the region to date.
‘Really sorry’
Ms Sturgeon said she was “really sorry” about the problems.
NHS Fife has also apologised and said the situation is being investigated to ensure it does not happen again.
“It shouldn’t happen,” the First Minister said.
“There was a booking issue that meant some of the clinics were double booked.
“This meant appointment slots were too short and people were queueing when they shouldn’t have been.
“Obviously, given the weather conditions yesterday, that was particularly regrettable.”
Such a large error should have been spotted before elderly people turned up for their appointments.”
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie.
Ms Sturgeon said she understood people would feel annoyed.
But she added: “Just bear in mind how hard health boards are working right now to get this programme delivered as quickly as possible.
“These teams are performing a monumental task right now and they’re doing it really well.”
‘A creaking system’
Opposition MSPs reacted furiously to Monday’s issues.
North East Fife Liberal Democrat MSP Willie Rennie said: “That 7,000 appointments were affected is bad enough.
“That they still don’t know what went wrong is even worse.
“Such a large error should have been spotted before elderly people turned up for their appointments.
“The thousands of excellent vaccinators are being let down by a creaking system established by a government oblivious to the problems.”
Despite the considerable challenges, we are pleased that more than 5,000 people across Fife received their vaccination yesterday.”
NHS Fife chief executive Carol Potter.
Mid Scotland and Fife Labour MPS Alex Rowley said the over 75s in other health board areas were being vaccinated at GP practices and called on Fife to do the same.
“Mass centres are fine for the under-70s but a lot of people in their 70s are really struggling,” he said.
“Asking people of that age to travel on two buses in some cases in unacceptable.
“We don’t want to see this chaos and anxiety when we start calling people for their second doses.”
Increased staffing
NHS Fife said it had rapidly expanded the staffing at all the affected venues to cover the overbooked appointments.
However, Templehall Community Centre in Kirkcaldy is too small to safely increase the number of people.
This means some patients will be taken by shuttle bus to nearby Victoria Hospital for their jabs.
NHS Fife chief executive Carol Potter offered her “sincere apologies” to all those who had to wait in queues.
“Despite the considerable challenges, we are pleased that more than 5,000 people across Fife received their vaccination yesterday and we expect that to increase again today,” she said.
I also want to thank our staff for their incredible efforts.”
NHS Fife chief executive Carol Potter.
“We are determined that we will maintain the pace of the programme to ensure that our older people and those considered clinically vulnerable in Fife are vaccinated as quickly as possible.
“Again, I would like to offer a sincere thank you to the people in Fife for their continued understanding, not only this week but for many months as we have asked them to stick to public health measures in place to supress coronavirus in the Kingdom.
“I also want to thank our staff for their incredible efforts.”
