A GRANDMOTHER has lost £400 on a cancelled holiday and been left with no idea when she can see her family in Germany due to computer glitches which mean Covid vaccinations carried out in England are missing from her Scottish record.

Hazel Freedman, 73, normally visits her partner in England for two or three weeks at a time, but due to lockdown and travel restrictions ended up living with him in Leeds for nearly four months at the beginning of 2021.

As a result, the jewellery business owner, from Newton Mearns in East Renfrewshire, received both her Covid vaccinations at an NHS primary care clinic in Pudsey, West Yorkshire, in January and March.

However, since returning to Scotland she has been unable to get the details of her vaccinations uploaded onto her NHS Scotland record, making it impossible to obtain a vaccine status certificate needed for travel.

The Herald: Ms Freedman wants to travel to Germany to see her three grandchildren, who she last saw in person before the pandemic beganMs Freedman wants to travel to Germany to see her three grandchildren, who she last saw in person before the pandemic began

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Ms Freedman is desperate to see her three grandchildren in Berlin and has been forced to abandon a planned Channel Islands cruise with her partner at the end of August, losing their £400 deposit, because all passengers must provide proof of vaccination in order to board.

"The cruise liner won't let me on with what I've got," said Ms Freedman.

"What was suggested was that I get an NHS England GP instead, losing my Scottish doctor that I've had for more than 30 years and transferring all my information, and then a couple of months down the line from that they'll get me an NHS England number and upload the vaccine information that way. That's ridiculous.

"I end up bursting into tears every so often because I have three grandchildren, they all live in Berlin, they're all under 12, and I can't get to see them."

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Helplines in Scotland and England have been unable to resolve the problem, which appears to be linked to incompatible NHS numbers. 

Although Ms Freedman has paperwork from the Pudsey clinic detailing her vaccinations, they could not be uploaded onto England's database because her Scottish NHS number was not recognised.

Her GP surgery in Clarkston - despite being provided with all the documentation - has also repeatedly insisted since May that it cannot input her vaccination details into the Scottish database because the jags were administered elsewhere.

The Herald: Ms Freedman at home in Newton Mearns with her partner, Phillip Gordon, who lives in Leeds. The couple were due to go on a cruise this month but have had to cancel it, losing £400, due to the lack of vaccine certificationMs Freedman at home in Newton Mearns with her partner, Phillip Gordon, who lives in Leeds. The couple were due to go on a cruise this month but have had to cancel it, losing £400, due to the lack of vaccine certification

Ms Freedman said the stress of the situation has left her feeling like a "non-person" and triggered a bout of psoriasis.

She added: "I realise it's small potatoes to them, but it's big potatoes to me now, and the older you get you don't need stress.

"This has really killed me over the past few months, mostly because I can't go over to Germany to see my grandchildren.

"I'm getting worried they'll never see me again."

On Monday, the practice manager told Ms Freedman that they had received new information indicating that they could update her GP record, but still remained unable to update the database needed for a vaccine certificate. 

“So I'm still no further on,” said Ms Freedman. 

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The Herald is also aware of other cases involving people vaccinated in England whose details are missing from the Scottish database.

In one case, a 43-year-old care home worker was given his first vaccination in England in December, before relocating to Glasgow in February and getting his second vaccination at the Hydro in May.

However, there is no record of him or his vaccinations when he tries to enter his details into the NHS Inform website, which links patients in Scotland to their status certificates.

It comes after the Herald previously reported how Scotland's Covid status certificate helpline had been jammed by hundreds of people worried about missing or incorrect vaccine records.

The Scottish Government has signed a £600,000 deal with Netcompany, the IT firm behind Denmark's Coronapass system, to replace the current paper-based certificates with a digital app similar to that already in place in England and the EU.

Ministers are also considering whether to require proof of vaccination for entry into certain domestic venues, as well as overseas travel.

The Herald: Around 90% of all adults over 18 in Scotland have now had at least one vaccine dose, and 93% of all over-40s are fully vaccinatedAround 90% of all adults over 18 in Scotland have now had at least one vaccine dose, and 93% of all over-40s are fully vaccinated

It is unclear whether the switch to a digital system will resolve the underlying problems of missing and incorrect patient details, however, if information is still drawn from the same centralised database.

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: “We are working at pace to align vaccination records from different nations of the UK and have a process in place for sharing data between England and Scotland.

“Any suspected issues in a person’s Covid vaccination record should be reported to the vaccinations status helpline on 0808 196 8565.

"All errors will be resolved as soon as possible, and we aim to issue records of vaccination within 14 days of request, where the issues are resolvable in the NHS Scotland record.

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