People turn up to empty venue after being given wrong date for Covid vaccination in Grantham

A health group has apologised after a number of people with appointments for their Covid jabs turned up at The Meres only to find nobody there.

Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group has made the apology after an error led to a group of people being given an appointment for Sunday only to find no staff ready to give them their jabs at the Grantham venue.

One of those to arrive at the table tennis centre, where the jabs are given, on Sunday morning was John Mason, 28, who lives in Melton Mowbray.

Mr Mason says he was among a group of about 10 people at the centre when he arrived at around 10am. He said: "When we turned up at the centre there was not a soul in sight. There was no notice to say it was closed.

"I had to go to the reception in the leisure centre but they did not know what was going on.

"I have made a wasted round trip of 20 to 30 miles. My wife is heavily pregnant. I think this is poor form."

The table tennis centre at The Meres has been used as a vaccination centre since last year and has marked several milestones since then, reaching 150,000 vaccinations in June.

This is not the first time that this error has been made. In April, a number of people also turned up at The Meres for their appointments only to find it closed.

Mr Mason said it was made further frustrating for him because he was aware that there was a walk-in centre in Melton for vaccinations that day, but he wanted to make his appointment.

A spokesperson for Lincolnsire CCG said: "Unfortunately, it would appear that a small number of patients had been given an incorrect time for their second vaccination appointment when attending the Meres for their first. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience that was caused by this error and would like to reassure patients of our commitment to providing a high quality service to everyone."