Beware of the bug in the NHS England vaccination booking system

TL;DR: Do not visit the vaccination booking website too soon after getting your first shot. It will cancel the second one and it is then impossible to book only the second one, even on the phone.

Last Thursday I went with my wife to the Business Design Center in Islington, and we got our first shot of the Moderna vaccine.

In the evening I wanted to check the date of our second booking to add it to my calendar but the website told me I had missed my first appointment and needed to book both again. At that time I got an SMS that I had cancelled my second appointment.

I first tried to do book both again as it was the only thing offered, thinking I would be able to use the first one for a second shot and then cancel the second one. However I couldn’t as the next first appointment available was in a month and then there was no availability for a second one so it was not possible to book.

I then tried calling 119 and spent more than 10 minutes explaining the problem several times to a confused operator, however it seems they can not book a second appointment either without the first one. At the end I gave up and they booked me an appointment to a local pharmacy on Wednesday which I don’t need to attend and will be wasted as no one will be able to use it, and one at a (different) vaccination center 12 weeks later, so one week later than originally booked. I asked several times but they couldn’t be sure there would be Moderna...

I tried early to reach out to the support website but I got some standard answer to use 119 if I am struggling to use the website.

I then tried to explain the problem on Twitter after finding the Product manager at @nhsdigital (coronavirus vaccination service). I found out I was not the only one trying to report the problem as two other people mentioned it in the same thread ([1], [2]).

NHSuk account asked me for more information in DM, and I sent them the detailed explanation with the booking numbers and my email address and they transmitted it to “the service team who can look into it” on Friday, I haven’t heard back yet.

Does anyone know someone working on the booking system so that they can fix the bug?

Update: My booking was fixed. The booking on the phone was for AstraZeneca, they deleted it and I could book again at the original place, date and time. However they didn't tell me if the bug was going to be fixed, they just explained that it is as I expected. They hadn't got the record of my attendance yet so the system guessed I had missed it « This error message can be displayed when a dose 1 vaccination has been administered however the central vaccination systems (from which we pull information) have not been updated with this information. »