Run-around

We had my influenza jab yesterday. It’s been more than a year since our last one, and with a flu epidemic sweeping through the country, we thought it best to get another this year. It’s free, by the way, for senior citizens with comorbidities, like us. Registration is done through the MySejahtera app, which conveniently shows where the jabs are available.

Unfortunately, none of the government hospitals or clinics on the mainland had any stock, and the nearest option for us was the Lunas government clinic. We duly made our appointments a week ago, and this morning we took a leisurely drive there ..... only to be told that they’d run out of the flu vaccine! How could that be, since the MySejahtera app had confirmed our appointments?

The nurse was very apologetic, maybe to get us out of her hair as quickly as possible. She suggested that if we hurried to the Padang Serai government clinic, they still had a few doses left. Padang Serai? We’d never been there before. How far was it from Lunas? “Not far,” she assured us with a smile. “Just a straight road to Padang Besar.”

“Not far” turned out to be a very creative description. It was a straight road all right, but ten kilometres of it! Still, we eventually found the clinic, which, to our relief, did have the vaccine. We were registered almost immediately, no questions asked about any comorbidity. After all that run-around in Lunas, no thanks to the MySejahtera app, we weren’t about to argue. Get the jab, and get it done with!