Well Grrr.....

[davidgillon]

Guess who managed to break the NHS Covid booking system and isn't getting his booster tomorrow?

OTOH I did manage to rebook for Tuesday, so that's not too catastrophic. Though I think I did get the last available slot - 7:25PM was the only one offered.

My GPs are really good about sending out a reminder the day before for any kind of appointment, and when I didn't get one by close of play today  I first thought I'd ring to check in the morning and then wondered if I could check things online. It turns out you can check or change your appointment - just scroll down past the booking option, and when I gave the NHS booking system my NHS number it took me straight through to booking instead. So nope, no appointment tomorrow.

The problem when I booked ten days ago was that when I opted for a confirmation of the booking it kept objecting that my email address wasn't valid, even though it was visibly correct, but when I added my mobile number as well (the other option for a confirmation), it seemed to finish the process with no problem, it just failed to then send me the confirmation. But as far as I was concerned I was already booked by that point, it was just the optional confirmation that had failed.

Only that's not what's supposed to happen.

When I went through this time and again clicked for a confirmation (I wasn't thinking, I should have opted not to get one) it objected to my email address again. But this time I poked around a bit more, rather than sticking my mobile number in, and it turns out that the copy of my email address my phone was offering for me as a shortcut has a space on the end. Which is of course impossible to spot unless you deliberately go back to edit the line rather than saying "but that's right".

And when you correct that trailing space you get a whole extra screenful of information with a confirmation of where and when and a booking number that 'you must take with you' (and your phone going biddleboop because the email just arrived). But first time through I saw nothing to indicate I should be expecting to see that extra screenful. Errors that drop you out without indicating the booking hasn't been made, which really should be considered safety critical given the situation, are really not acceptable. Failing the entire booking over an optional informational email is equally poor systems design.

And why we have to take a booking number along when they're also running walk-in clinics is another good systems engineering question!

Grrr!!!