The Lemon Fool

My tennis club has told me that I need to scan their NHS QR code upon entry.

My phone is an Apple iphone 5S which is up to date for ios 12.5.2.

The NHS covid 19 app says it wants ios 13.5 so what to do please? (please don,t suggest tiddlywinks!)

Ask them what their alternative, non-smartphone method is.

Scott.

swill453 wrote:Ask them what their alternative, non-smartphone method is.

Yes, I love the underlying assumption there that if you play tennis then you must have a smartphone, let alone a new model. I bet his local bowls club doesn't have that policy.

As a late adopter myself, I only finally got a smart phone in May 2019, although I now have two. And I had never used or read a QR code until last summer, when restaurants and pubs started using them for food menus and ordering food, and/or for locations subscribing to a Test and Trace system.

And even then, as you note, they always had an alternative, e.g. paper menus or letting you write your contact details on a piece of paper. And there always should be an alternative. I should not have to buy a new phone to play tennis.

feder1 wrote:so what to do please?

Tell the tennis club to read and implement the guidance correctly - https://faq.covid19.nhs.uk/article/KA-01137

If you do not want to check into a venue using the NHS COVID-19 app, or do not have the app, you can provide your name and contact details as an alternative.

However as it is a tennis club and not a 'hospitality venue' then it is voluntary anyway - "Non-hospitality venues in England required to have an NHS QR code do not need to refuse entry to customers or visitors. They should encourage customers and visitors to scan the official NHS QR poster, or share their contact details, in order to support NHS Test and Trace."

AF62 wrote:

feder1 wrote:so what to do please?

Tell the tennis club to read and implement the guidance correctly - https://faq.covid19.nhs.uk/article/KA-01137

If you do not want to check into a venue using the NHS COVID-19 app, or do not have the app, you can provide your name and contact details as an alternative.

However as it is a tennis club and not a 'hospitality venue' then it is voluntary anyway - "Non-hospitality venues in England required to have an NHS QR code do not need to refuse entry to customers or visitors. They should encourage customers and visitors to scan the official NHS QR poster, or share their contact details, in order to support NHS Test and Trace."

I like the phrase "do not need to refuse entry". They can if they want to, because they are a club.
But, does it need a two thirds majority vote at an EGM as clubs often do? If only we've done that for the you know what referendum: life would have been so much simpler. (PS, not an invitation, but thinking aloud )

Arb.

I hope it's all right to ask a question here

What comes under "non hospitality"? Would churches come under this?

I bumped into the local vicar the other day - I don't live in an Agatha Christie novel! - and he said that "guidance" meant he had to register details. I don't go to church but I was interested that he said "guidance" but so many people confuse law and guidance.

Arborbridge wrote:(PS, not an invitation, but thinking aloud )

You need to think quieter if you're not to risk your political stuff being deleted here. C.

I had the same at a tourist attraction last week. They wanted me to scan a QR code, and although they had been open a week before I visited, had no alternative method of tracking. They must have a thousand or so visitors a day, I would estimate, and I simply cannot have been the first person not to have a smart phone. They let me in "just this once."

Loup321 wrote: They let me in "just this once."

and thus making a mockery of the entire thing (thats not a dig at Loup321!)

why do they bother? If 1000 people all turn up without smnartphones they presumably then have 1o00 untraceable people?

(rhetorical question)

didds wrote:

Loup321 wrote: They let me in "just this once."

and thus making a mockery of the entire thing (thats not a dig at Loup321!)

why do they bother? If 1000 people all turn up without smnartphones they presumably then have 1o00 untraceable people?

(rhetorical question)

All they have to do is have some pencils and scraps of paper out so people can scribble their contact details. Maybe a jar for people with business cards, It's not hard.

Lootman wrote:All they have to do is have some pencils and scraps of paper out so people can scribble their contact details. Maybe a jar for people with business cards, It's not hard.

Indeed they can. Or could anyway. Though as Loup321 explains - they didn't.

I had the same at a tourist attraction last week. They wanted me to scan a QR code, and although they had been open a week before I visited, had no alternative method of tracking.

ie It was T&T app or nothing. Niether I nor Loup321 are suggesting they dont need to have an alternative, especially one as simple as pencil and paper entries.

So if 1000 people turn up without a smartphone there are 1000 people that are now untraceable.

So, with things opening up, I've run into another issue. I live in Scotland, I've got the Scottish exposure notification app and "Check in Scotland" for checking into venues. Then I visited family in England. The exposure notification apps work together, so nothing to do there. But "Check in Scotland" doesn't recognise the English NHS QR codes. No problem, I need to install the English app to check in to venues in England. But it won't let me register, as I don't live in England!
Some venues have their own system as well as the NHS system - this works, though is more work as I have to enter all my details every time. But the one venue I found that didn't (ironically at an airport, where you'd expect travellers from outside England) only had the alternative of a paper form.

Have the NHS really missed that they're not providing any way for those living outside England to check in?

SteelCamel wrote:Have the NHS really missed that they're not providing any way for those living outside England to check in?

I don't know, but I doubt it. Surely the clue is in the name? "NHS App" i.e. It is for people who have an NHS number, if not, I can't see what it has to do with the NHS. Anything else would be for the UK government to sort out.

SteelCamel wrote:So, with things opening up, I've run into another issue. I live in Scotland, I've got the Scottish exposure notification app and "Check in Scotland" for checking into venues. Then I visited family in England. The exposure notification apps work together, so nothing to do there. But "Check in Scotland" doesn't recognise the English NHS QR codes. No problem, I need to install the English app to check in to venues in England. But it won't let me register, as I don't live in England!
Some venues have their own system as well as the NHS system - this works, though is more work as I have to enter all my details every time. But the one venue I found that didn't (ironically at an airport, where you'd expect travellers from outside England) only had the alternative of a paper form.

Have the NHS really missed that they're not providing any way for those living outside England to check in?

Is there confusion here between the "NHS App" - which provides access to your medical records and vaccination status for people with an NHS England number, and the NHS "Covid-19" Test & Trace App - which does the exposure notification thing and venue checkin. As far as I can see you don't register on the Covid-19 app - the app doesn't know who you are. So you can use it whether you have an NHS England number or not.

chas49 wrote:

SteelCamel wrote:So, with things opening up, I've run into another issue. I live in Scotland, I've got the Scottish exposure notification app and "Check in Scotland" for checking into venues. Then I visited family in England. The exposure notification apps work together, so nothing to do there. But "Check in Scotland" doesn't recognise the English NHS QR codes. No problem, I need to install the English app to check in to venues in England. But it won't let me register, as I don't live in England!
Some venues have their own system as well as the NHS system - this works, though is more work as I have to enter all my details every time. But the one venue I found that didn't (ironically at an airport, where you'd expect travellers from outside England) only had the alternative of a paper form.

Have the NHS really missed that they're not providing any way for those living outside England to check in?

Is there confusion here between the "NHS App" - which provides access to your medical records and vaccination status for people with an NHS England number, and the NHS "Covid-19" Test & Trace App - which does the exposure notification thing and venue checkin. As far as I can see you don't register on the Covid-19 app - the app doesn't know who you are. So you can use it whether you have an NHS England number or not.

Yes, this. In fact the NHS app is ponderous to set up. As I recall I had to send an image of my passport ID page and then video myself reciting numbers before it was set up.

By contrast installing the NHS Covid-19 app was trivial. Not least because it is more about your phone than about you.

Lootman wrote:In fact the NHS app is ponderous to set up. As I recall I had to send an image of my passport ID page and then video myself reciting numbers before it was set up.

Just out of interest... Does anyone know if the NHS App is easier to set up if you are already registered via your GP for online access to your NHS medical records?

XFool wrote:

Lootman wrote:In fact the NHS app is ponderous to set up. As I recall I had to send an image of my passport ID page and then video myself reciting numbers before it was set up.

Just out of interest... Does anyone know if the NHS App is easier to set up if you are already registered via your GP for online access to your NHS medical records?

In my experience, no. I couldn't use that method with my Android 7 phone to get round the requirement to video yourself, even though I am registered with the practice for access to System Online. Succeeded with this phone which uses Android 10.

TJH

...Thanks for that tjh290633.

SteelCamel wrote:So, with things opening up, I've run into another issue. I live in Scotland, I've got the Scottish exposure notification app and "Check in Scotland" for checking into venues. Then I visited family in England. The exposure notification apps work together, so nothing to do there. But "Check in Scotland" doesn't recognise the English NHS QR codes. No problem, I need to install the English app to check in to venues in England. But it won't let me register, as I don't live in England!
Some venues have their own system as well as the NHS system - this works, though is more work as I have to enter all my details every time. But the one venue I found that didn't (ironically at an airport, where you'd expect travellers from outside England) only had the alternative of a paper form.

Have the NHS really missed that they're not providing any way for those living outside England to check in?

Just use a fictitious postcode, that's all the id it needs. Then you can fulfill the requirement to check in to venues with the app, which is all anyone's looking for.

Scott.