I can’t update my Covid vaccine record to get a vital pass in Italy

theguardian.com:

My Covid booster vaccination in October does not appear on my NHS app, leaving me in a desperate situation. For the last month I’ve been in Italy where a “super green pass” is required for access to public transport and all indoor public spaces, but it expires 270 days after the last vaccination. My second jab, last April, is now invalid. I’ve been trying since November to get this resolved. The NHS website directed me to 119, which referred me to the Vaccine Data Resolution Service (VDRS). It was supposed to ring me within three weeks. Six weeks on, I’m still waiting, but the 119 number doesn’t work from Italy. I have had to cancel all future social and business arrangements and I am concerned that I may not even be able to access the airport to fly home. I cannot be the only one caught up in this.MT, London

Indeed you are not, which is why the VDRS was set up for patients registered to an English GP who received their jab in England. NHS England wouldn’t comment on whether it’s struggling with a backlog of incomplete vaccine records, but in an email to you a caseworker explained that demand had been higher than expected.

The trouble is, patients can’t contact the VDRS directly. They call the 119 number which, as you’ve found, is inaccessible from overseas, and the NHS advice page on updating a vaccine record gives no alternative. Nor is there the option for you to log your details online. The VDRS pledges to attempt to make contact up to three times within 21 days, and expects the person to have vaccine dates, batch numbers and the full address of the vaccine centre at the ready when the call comes. You were contacted by an agent after I intervened and, three months after your booster jab, your pass was updated.

The NHS