SWINDON social worker Anna Blackmore-Dawes has described a decision to deny her from having a Covid-19 jab on Sunday as “bureaucracy gone mad.”

Mrs Blackmore-Dawes, 54, said she was denied the opportunity to be protected against the deadly coronavirus after booking a vaccination at the Bath Racecourse on Sunday.

She said: “I am a social worker and I booked my vaccine slot at Bath Races for today.

“I work with children - some have with profound learning and physical disabilities - and their parents and carers.

“When I arrived, a sign explained there is a booking error, you can’t have vaccine if work with children.

“I was turned away by the marshal and told to book for two weeks’ time. It’s madness. They wasted a slot and potentially a vaccine.

“When I tried to cancel the slot, the website says you have to wait a day to cancel. So I cancelled on Monday, the day after it took place. Again madness.

“More importantly, my South West colleagues in Bristol, received their jabs today. No fuss. No drama. Job done. Postcode lottery.”

Mrs Blackmore-Dawes, who lives in Chippenham, has worked for Swindon Borough Council for the past four years.

She said colleagues who booked their jabs at a Bristol pharmacy and in Basingstoke were able to be vaccinated with no problems at all.

“At Bath, they told me there had been a booking error and that I shouldn’t have been able to book because I work with children.

“Does the government want to reach their targets? Perhaps they need to make sure everyone is treated equally.

“It seems ridiculous that some of my colleagues can get the vaccine because they have attended a different venue but I couldn’t. It’s local bureaucracy gone mad.”

She has since rebooked to have the jab in Westbury later this month.

In another incident, a 72-year-old pensioner in Staverton, said some of her friends and relatives were forced to queue for up to half an hour in freezing temperatures while waiting to be vaccinated in Trowbridge and Westbury.

The woman, who did not wish to be named, said: “My brother was forced to stand outside the Wingfield Road surgery in the freezing cold, and a friend, also aged 72, was also made to queue in Westbury.”

The woman added: “I am lucky to belong to Bradford on Avon & Melksham Surgery and went for a very well organised vaccine at Spencer’s Social Club in Melksham with about 10 people giving the vaccine and only having to wait outside for less than five minutes.

“Bearing in mind they are vaccinating the elderly and extremely vulnerable I think this needs to be exposed.

“Why can’t they use a hall as Bradford and Melksham are doing? I think more people will be getting ill for waiting for the vaccine. Something needs to be done.”

Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group, which is organising the vaccination sessions, has been approached for a comment.