NHS website hit by technical problems amid rush to book booster jabs

NHS says it is ‘working to resolve’ issues as people struggle to book third Covid vaccine dose

The NHS website has been hit by technical problems amid a rush to book booster jabs as the rollout expands to all over-18s.

People struggled to book their third vaccine dose on Sunday night just as Boris Johnson repeatedly urged the nation to “get boosted now” during a televised address. Some people were still struggling to book their jabs on Monday morning, complaining that the website kept “looping back” before they could get a vaccine slot.

In a pre-recorded video message released on Sunday, the prime minister announced all adults in the UK would offered a booster before the end of the month in a bid to fend of a “tidal wave” of the omicron variant. Over-18s in England will be able to book their booster online from Wednesday through the NHS website as the government accelerates the rollout.

The PM’s message appeared to trigger a rush to book jabs on Sunday night, with more than 17,000 people in the online queue to secure a slot shortly after his message was broadcast.

But some people trying to book a slot to receive their third jab were met with an error message, while others were unable to get past entering their details on the NHS website. The problems began earlier in the day before Mr Johnson’s speech.

A statement on the website said: “The NHS website is currently experiencing technical difficulties. We are working to resolve these issues. Thank you for your patience.”

At around 7:30am on Monday morning, the NHS website was working but over 4,000 people were in the online queue to book their jabs.

Some were also struggling to get the NHS website to load properly and others were still being shown last night’s error message.

The booster rollout will officially extend to people in their 30s from Monday, although many have found they are already able to book a slot for for their third dose this weekend.

An NHS Digital spokesperson said: “The vaccine booking service is facing extremely high demand and is operating a queuing system to manage numbers. We would advise people currently unable to book to try again later today or tomorrow.”