Parents wait over an hour at vaccination centres to get kids jabbed

Parents at some paediatric vaccination centres had to wait for longer time - at times more than an hour - to get their children vaccinated.

Seven new paediatric vaccination centres were rolled out for Primary 4 to Primary 6 pupils on Monday (Jan 3), taking the total number of such centres to 14.

They are Clementi Community Centre, Former Hong Kah Secondary School, Queenstown Community Centre, Toa Payoh West Community Club, Jalan Besar Community Club, Marine Parade Community Club and The Serangoon Community Club.

Children started receiving their jabs on Dec 27, when the first seven centres opened at various locations, including Tampines, Woodlands and Hougang.

When The Straits Times visited Clementi Community Centre at about 3pm on Monday, parents said they waited from an hour to an hour and 15 minutes for their children to get jabbed.

A Fullerton Health staff at Clementi, who declined to be named, said the waiting time was about 45 minutes since the centre opened at 8am.

Mr Benjamin Ang, 40, a sales manager, said his 9-year-old son was about 30 minutes late for his math tuition at 3pm.

They were about 10 minutes early for his son's appointment at 2pm, and expected to be done by 2.45pm.

"I didn't expect it to be that long as the waiting time for adults previously was pretty fast, but we ended up waiting for about 50 minutes," he said.

Administrative assistant Madam Norshahida Norwie, 41, said she waited about an hour and 10 minutes for her 11-year-old daughter's turn, with the whole process taking nearly two hours.

"This is outrageous, it's really unexpected. I don't know what's with the queue system, but someone who came after us got to register first," she added.

A spokesman for healthcare provider Fullerton Health, which runs the vaccination centre at Clementi, told ST that there was a larger than expected number of walk-ins as well as individuals who have appointed time slots but choose to come earlier or later.

"Due to our strict infection control protocols, crowd control was enforced. Priority into the centre were given to the elderly and those with the right appointed time.

"There was a peak at around noon to about 3pm. After which, the situation was resolved and everyone was served within an hour," added the spokesman.

At Woodlands Galaxy Community Club, some parents were frustrated at the long waiting times while others found the process smooth sailing.

An engineer, who wanted to be known only as Mr Boon, said he and his 9-year-old son arrived on time for their 2pm slot.

"There was a long queue to register and even though it was moving, the wait was longer than expected. We waited for about 30 minutes before my son received his jab. I think I expected it to be quicker because when I went for my jab last year, I did not wait at all," said the 40-year-old.

Mrs Lakshmi, a nurse, and her 10-year-old daughter were late fortheir 1pm appointment and arrived at 1.40pm.

The 35-year-old said: "We saw a long queue. I was contemplating whether we should queue or come back on another day but my daughter said she wanted to get it over with. So we queued and it ended up moving a lot faster than I expected. I'm glad we could leave the centre before 3pm."

Ms Reyers Loh, 39, who works as a cabin crew, said she was very pleased at how quickly the process went.

She was with her 11-year-old daughter at the Woodlands centre for their 2.30pm slot.

"We arrived 25 minutes before my daughter's appointment. I thought we would have to wait quite a while but my daughter received her jab 15 minutes after registering. It was a very smooth process."

The Fullerton Health spokesman said that similar to the situation at Clementi, there were more walk-ins than expected at the Woodlands centre.

"The situation was resolved by 1.30pm. We thank the public for their patience and appeal to customers to make an appointment and come at their appointed time to avoid such situations," he added.

When ST visited Toa Payoh West Community Club and Queenstown Community Centre, there were no queues. Staff at both centres said the process was rather quick and operations have been running smoothly.