Dear Sir,

In order to send an e-mail to a Government department one has to fill in the contact form on the Government website.

One task that needs to be completed is to choose the recipient.

My enquiry concerned the availability to seniors of the shingles vaccine at Government clinics and, since it wasn't obvious which recipient would be the most relevant choice, I sent it (independently) to several, including: Ageing and Disabilities, Bermuda Hospitals Board, Communicable Disease Control, Epidemiology, Health and Seniors and Health Promotion Office.

A month later, not one has replied, not even to say that they are not the relevant department. (I can't believe that Health and Seniors wouldn't be relevant or, at least, be able to point me in the right direction.)

Does anyone read messages sent through that online portal, or do they just disappear into the ether? Why does each department not have its own e-mail address that the public can use, so at least we'd know that it went there rather than getting lost in the vortex of gov.bm?

ANDREW R DOBLE

Smith’s