Poland’s online vaccination portal logged 386,412 requests for shingles shots in the first 24 hours of a new subsidy, the highest daily total since the system opened, the health ministry said on Saturday. Only 141,000 appointments were confirmed, leaving the rest on waiting lists or without a booking as pharmacies and clinics struggled to keep up.
The scheme, which begins on 1 November, makes the two-dose vaccine free for people aged 60 and over. Before the change, many eligible patients paid about 190 zloty per dose (about €44). The previous daily high for vaccine requests was 81,900, recorded during last autumn’s influenza campaign.
Waiting lists split the country
The ministry said the first wave of appointments was distributed according to local population, but health providers in smaller towns said the system favoured large pharmacy networks with more staff and booking terminals. In Białystok, several clinics reported that their available slots disappeared before the public portal showed them to patients.
“We had people calling before opening time, and then the slots were gone before our receptionist could enter them,” said Jacqueline W. Buchberger, a pharmacist in Łódź. “A free vaccine is not much comfort if the only appointment is 90 kilometres away.”
Private pharmacy groups countered that they had invested in extra booking capacity and should not be penalised for serving more patients. Attila Nagy-Pásztor, who runs a family clinic outside Lublin, said the scramble had created “two queues: one for people who know how to use the portal, and one for everyone else”.
Officials defend the rollout
The health ministry said 178,000 first-dose appointments had been offered nationally, with additional capacity expected as more clinics join the programme next week. Mert Gönültaş, a ministry spokesman, said the portal had held up despite brief delays and that no provider had been given priority access. “We are adding appointments daily. The first day’s figures show demand we did not forecast at this scale,” he said.
That explanation did little to calm patient advocates, who called for walk-in registration and a published map of remaining doses. Eleonora Neri, a representative of the Polish Patient Access Forum, said older adults without smartphones were being left to rely on relatives or busy clinic reception desks. She urged the ministry to reserve a share of each allocation for phone and in-person bookings.
Doctors say the vaccine can sharply reduce the risk of shingles and its lasting nerve pain, but stress that one dose does not complete the course: the second is usually given two to six months later. The ministry says it will publish updated appointment totals on Monday and review how doses are divided before the next allocation. For now, clinics are asking patients not to travel without a confirmed slot.
