Difficulties with uploading foreign vaccination records to NHS app

The UK government had said that residents vaccinated abroad could have their certificates entered in the NHS app at certain vaccination centres but there do not appear to be many available

UK residents who were vaccinated abroad are having difficulty finding a vaccination centre which will upload their vaccination records to the NHS app
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Connexion readers who were vaccinated in France but who are now resident in the UK have reported being unable to convert their vaccination documents into a NHS app-compatible record despite a government announcement stating that this is now possible.

Read more:UK residents vaccinated in France can now use NHS Covid pass

The new system should mean that UK residents who have been vaccinated abroad will for the first time be able to book their booster and display all three doses in the NHS Covid pass, which from tomorrow (December 15) will be required for entry into some venues in England.

Read more:England vaccine passport: How will this affect visitors from France?

Previously, only people who had been vaccinated in England, Scotland or Wales could access the Covid pass feature.

People wishing to have their foreign vaccination documents uploaded to the NHS app have been told to book an appointment at “a selected list of vaccination centres across England” through the NHS website.

However, a reader who lives near Bournemouth reported that when he tried to do this he was informed that the nearest centre was in Cambridge, 115 miles away.

Two London residents also told us that their nearest participating vaccination centre was 80 miles away in Peterborough.

This afternoon (December 14), a search for vaccination centres near London King’s Cross generates a single result: Nightingale Hospital North and East in Tyne and Wear, 241 miles away.

A search from Liverpool suggests that one visits the same Sunderland hospital, or a vaccination centre in Berkshire.

Other location searches fail to show any available vaccination centres.

The NHS portal states that there are no vaccination centres available for the conversion of foreign vaccination records to the NHS app Pic: Screenshot / NHS

It should be noted that you can still use your European Digital Covid Certificate – accessed through the French TousAntiCovid app – to access venues which are subject to the English Covid pass, so it is not absolutely necessary to have your documents uploaded to the NHS app.

Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own Covid pass systems.

The Connexion has contacted the UK Department of Health and Social Care for further information on the situation and to determine whether there will be more vaccination centres added to the list in the future.

We have not yet received a response.

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