A PARENT of a Bournemouth student who queued eight hours to get her vaccination has labelled the experience as an “absolute shambles”.

Hundreds of students from across Bournemouth’s three universities - Bournemouth University, Arts University Bournemouth and AECC - queued at the BIC this morning to get a jab.

This was after the universities invited students to attend the mass vaccination centre to make use of "spare capacity".

The father of a final year students at Arts University Bournemouth said: “My daughter went to the BIC this morning at 8am to get her jab, and she didn’t come out until after 4pm.

“We got there at around 8am and, when we arrived, I was shocked by the amount of people already queuing.

“It was an absolute shambles. When I got my jab, I queued for half an hour at my local surgery.”

Having finally entered the building at 2pm, the student didn’t receive her jab until 3.45pm. After waiting 15 minutes after her vaccination, as protocol, she exited the building at just after 4pm.

Bournemouth Echo:

The universities have confirmed the daily sessions, which were due to run until Monday, May 24, have been withdrawn until further notice.

The parent added: “They were still doing vaccinations at 4pm so it must have only just been stopped.

“She is probably one of hundreds of students who wasted a whole day queuing up for their vaccine.

“They should have done it by age group, year group or faculty. Anything, so that that they didn’t have hundreds and hundreds of students queueing up.”

Earlier today, Dorset HealthCare NHS Trust, which is overseeing the county's vaccine rollout, said the student turnout had been "overwhelming".

A spokesman from the trust said it was agreed to offer "students in priority groups" the chance to get a vaccination, however, a statement on Bournemouth University's website on May 18 said it was available to all aged over 18.

Bournemouth Echo:

Students queueing for their vaccinations were only offered a bottle of water from staff at the BIC and went without food all day whilst they waited.

“They obviously realised that they had made a mistake. You have got wonder what on earth they were thinking,” the parent said.

“Someone should have said something, and they should have known it was going to be chaos.

“I can understand if it was Bolton, where the new variant is, and they had told people to come along quickly to get their jabs, but they didn’t need to do it like this because we aren’t in the same situation as them.”