• I REGRET that my initial experience at the Bingfield Primary Care Clinic was quite different from Keith McDowall’s, (No complaints here about the jabs, January 15).

Accompanied by my wife, we arrived to discover there was a queue waiting outside in the cold and wet.

Although only a few days off my 90th birthday I’m reasonably fit and able to stand; but there were several very frail and vulnerable people, some in wheelchairs, guided by their carers.

It was because of my wife’s and my intervention that chairs were found for some to sit on and our plea for the most frail to be let inside was accepted.

Many had their appointments scheduled at the same time as mine. Some 15 minutes later we were finally let in.

Inside, dozens stood or were seated with hardly a metre between them in an unventilated room with all windows closed, although the door occasionally opened. Volunteers rushed about.

A good half-hour after my appointment, and at least 45 minutes since we’d arrived, I was finally called.

The one good part of the whole experience was the practice nurse who gave me the jab: she was efficient, thorough, careful, and quick. In other words, highly professional.

The fault lay in the overall organisation of the through-put of people. I only hope that the vulnerable over-80s in the outside queue didn’t catch pneumonia or worse in the confines of the waiting area.

ROBERT VAS DIAS
Canonbury