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Home Folkestone News Article
People are reporting two-hour long queues at Kent's first mass vaccine site.
The centre opened in the former Debenhams store in Folkestone town centre on Tuesday and is expected to vaccinate thousands of people each week.
But pictures have emerged showing long queues outside the Sandgate Road shop, which has been empty since last January when the chain moved out.
People waiting to get their jab against Covid-19 yesterday said they ended up leaving the line and booking elsewhere after standing outside for long periods of time.
The queues also prompted concerns over social distancing, with one woman saying it was 'a Covid breakout waiting to happen'.
Anne Smyth got in touch with KentOnline to say her 73-year-old parents had waited two hours, including 90 minutes outside.
She said: "Luckily it's a dry and mild day, but this will be really dangerous when it's sleeting and raining, as forecast later this week."
Yvonne Stewart, from Deal, described the scenes outside the former department store as an "absolute chaotic disgrace".
She said: "Last night my husband turned up 15 minutes early for his appointment at 7.20pm to have his jab.
"We were met by a queue of at least a 100 people!
"The woman in the yellow jacket told my husband that he would have to queue for about an hour and a half before he got inside and didn’t know how long the queue was inside.
"Fortunately my husband had an email from his surgery in Deal that afternoon to tell him to click and book an appointment, but I made him go for the booked appointment he already had, otherwise it be a waste for someone else.
"How wrong was that! He clicked on what he had been sent, while queueing and got an appointment for 9.30 in Dover on Sunday, he phoned 119 to cancel the appointment he was queueing in and left.
"It was a Covid breakout waiting to happen, poor people not been out for months and then to go to that, it was an absolute disgrace."
Someone else posted on Facebook that they also left after queuing for 40 minutes and someone else reported a 90 minute wait.
Debenhams, which has been re-branded Folca by the district council who now own the building, is the first large-scale coronavirus vaccination centre in the county, although more are expected to open in the coming weeks.
'Vaccination pods' have been set up inside and partitions featuring vintage NHS photos separate vaccine-receivers.
People being invited to have a jab need to live within a 45-minute car journey.
The whole process should take about 15 minutes from start to finish, says the Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust (KCHFT), which is running the site.
It also says appointments are staggered to allow for social distancing and people are urged not to turn up early to avoid queues.
Trust deputy chief executive Gordon Flack said: “We are making changes to improve waiting times through our vaccination centre. This includes increasing the number of stewards and volunteers helping to manage the queue outside and reminding people to stay a safe distance from each other.
“We ask that people arrive on time for their appointment to avoid congestion and to keep waiting times to a minimum.”
