Vaccine certificates: Jag record blunder leaves couple unable to see son

Mrs Lovat, from Newton Mearns in East Renfrewshire, said: "It's a nightmare".

The Herald revealed earlier this week that the vaccine status helpline has been jammed with calls from hundreds of people worried after discovering errors in their certificate - or being unable to obtain a certificate at all because all record of their vaccinations has vanished.

It comes amid growing demand for vaccine certificates as travel opens up, and pressure on the Scottish Government to adopt 'vaccine passports' for entry into crowded indoor venues such as nightclubs.

READ MORE: Vaccine certificate helpline jammed as hundred chase missing and incorrect vaccination details

A digital app version of the paper-based vaccine status certificates are currently in development, and expected to launch within weeks, but it is unclear if this will resolve issues with missing or incorrect patient details if the information is drawn from the same centralised database.

Mrs Lovat, 71, and her 73-year-old husband, Mervyn, a lecturer in business and finance at Glasgow University, were vaccinated at the same time at Carmichael Hall in Giffnock.

Both received their first doses on February 13 with second doses on May 4.

The appointments were arranged by letter, meaning that the couple each had unique usernames which are used by the NHS Inform website to link patients to their vaccine status certificate.

However, when the couple requested copies of their certificates in May they discovered that Mrs Lovat's second vaccination on May 4 had been wrongly recorded as a 'first dose', with no mention of the February 13 inoculation.

Mr Lovat's certificate recorded his vaccinations correctly.

Linda Lovat

Mrs Lovat, a former French and Spanish languages teacher, has repeatedly called the Covid-19 Status Helpline on 0808 196 8565 asking for her details to be amended, but nothing has changed.

She said: "Over and over again I've phoned.

"One man said 'I will create an event error case'. Another said 'I'll create an escalation form'. Both of these were in early July.

"Then when I phoned back again somebody told me that the escalation form system hadn't gone live until July 17, so it had got lost.

"So he raised another escalation form, but nothing has changed.

"You ring up and you're 300th in the queue, but then when you eventually do get to speak to a call handler they're completely impotent - they can't do a thing about it.

"When I first reported it, the person I spoke to - the call handler - said 'it's a nightmare'.

"They could see on their system that I'd had the two vaccinations, but for some reason nobody seems to be able to update the information that's on the certificate.

"I'm going bananas I really am. It's like being held to random by an anonymous body."

READ MORE: Travel frustration for fully-vaccinated Ayrshire engineer left with 'no record' of jags

The Lovats had hoped to fly to Israel to reunite with their son, who they have not seen for more than two years.

Israel is on the UK's green list but is currently closed to tourists.

It had been expected to reopen its borders to fully vaccinated visitors from August 1, though a surge in the Delta variant means this is likely to be postponed until September.

All arrivals will have to provide a negative PCR test and enter isolation for up to 14 days, with unvaccinated foreign nationals only permitted entry in exceptional cases - such as attending weddings or being married to an Israeli citizen.

Vaccination coverage, by age group, to date (Source: Public Health Scotland)

In another case, Edinburgh grandmother Gill Ottley said was shocked when her GP surgery offered to provide written proof of her husband's vaccinations, for a £20 fee, after admitting they had not uploaded his details to NHS Inform.

Mr Ottley, 76, who has advanced dementia, was given both doses at the GP practice following appointments arranged by telephone, while Mrs Ottley, 70, was vaccinated at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) hub.

Although the couple, who are both retired senior civil servants, have no plans to travel abroad, they have family in England and were concerned that proof of vaccination may end up being needed for train travel or access into other public spaces.

READ MORE: Fully-vaccinated Glasgow pensioner told there is 'no record' of his jags

Mrs Ottley was able to download her certificate from NHS Inform but her husband's details were not registered.

A helpline operative told her to ask her husband's GP for written proof of vaccination instead.

Mrs Ottley said: "He [the GP] told me they didn't have the facilities for that and hadn't input his data into the NHS Inform thing.

"He said 'we could get a certificate but it would have to go through the ordinary process where you get vaccinations to go abroad and it'll cost you £20'.

"I was quite taken aback when he said it could be produced for a fee. It seems very unfair when I downloaded mine for free."

GP-produced Covid vaccine records are also not accepted at airports.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “While we have successfully issued thousands of Covid Status Certificates, we are aware that some applicants are experiencing problems and we are working at pace to resolve this.

“We continue to work towards replacing the record of vaccination status with digital Covid Status Certificates, which will include vaccination and testing data to be used for outbound international travel.”