A WORRIED daughter says her 95-year-old mother who became housebound after being in hospital and contracting Covid-19 is yet to receive her first vaccine.

Susan Thomas-Peter’s mother Margaret Williams – who lives in Cwmcarn – was due to be vaccinated on Thursday, January 14, at Ebbw Vale General Offices, but after spending six weeks in hospital last autumn – where she contracted coronavirus – she has become housebound and wasn't able to go.

And Mrs Thomas-Peter said if it wasn’t for her visiting her mother regularly from Yeovil, she probably would never have the vaccine.

As of Sunday, 589,622 people in Wales had received a first dose of coronavirus vaccine - and 2,606 have been given their second dose.

But Mrs Thomas-Peter has called for more to be done for housebound vulnerable people living in Wales, many of whom she believes are yet to receive a first vaccine.

“Last year mam spent six weeks in Ystrad Mynach Hospital, and contracted Covid there,” she said. “She is now housebound and was unable to attend her appointment on January 14 because she is so vulnerable.

“I called the number the vaccination booking team to notify them of her non-attendance, but couldn’t get through. I later realised the line had been cut off due to too many people trying to call.

“I then contacted the health board on January 11, to inform them of mam’s non-attendance and to ask how the health board plans to vaccinate her and other people in her position.

“I was told that at that stage there were no plans in place, for either community teams or nurses to administer vaccines to housebound vulnerable people.

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“To date I am still unaware of when she'll be vaccinated, but I have just received correspondence from the health board that this will be soon."

Mrs Thomas-Peter says she believes if it wasn’t for her checking on her mother regularly and opening her post, she’d probably never have the vaccine.

“Mam opened the letter but it’s all in Welsh for the first few pages – she just put it to one side," she said.

“They can’t call her either, because she’s not very good on the phone. I’m sure there are thousands of people like that in Wales. How many of them are lonely and don’t have people looking after them?

“She presumably falls into the priority one group, so I do feel she’s been let down here."

The Welsh Government and the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board have said plans for people who are housebound have now been drawn up.

A Welsh Government spokesman said: “Health boards have plans in place for people who are housebound, to receive the vaccine in their homes. They also have plans to ensure no-one is left behind and will be actively seeking to vaccinate housebound people who may have been missed in the initial round of visits.”

Speaking last week, a spokesman for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board said: “We started to vaccinate those people who are housebound at the beginning of this week.

“We are deploying teams of district nurses, GPs and mobile units to roll-out the vaccine to those that are housebound and eligible in line with the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation priority groups 1-4.

“Patients will be contacted the day before they are due to be vaccinated so they know when to expect a visit from the team.”