Alberta to open flu assessment clinics
Supplies to slow while manufacturers focus on non-adjuvanted vaccine
Last Updated: Thursday, October 29, 2009 | 6:53 PM MT
CBC News
Dr. Stephen Duckett, head of Alberta Health Services, apologized Thursday for the long lines at vaccination clinics. (CBC) Alberta is opening two clinics where people with mild flu symptoms can be assessed without clogging hospital waiting rooms.
The clinics — set to open in Calgary and Edmonton — are meant to ease congestion in emergency rooms, Stephen Duckett, head of the Alberta Health Services, said Thursday.
Calgary's clinic will be held at the Richmond Road Diagnostic and Treatment Centre, the same building where people are getting the swine flu shot. It will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Edmonton's clinic will be in the Duggan Health Centre and will be open from 8 a.m. to midnight. Both will be open seven days a week, starting Friday.
Earlier on Thursday, Duckett said there would be a clinic in Wetaskiwin, but a spokesperson for Alberta Health Services later said it wasn't clear when or whether a clinic would be set up there.
People need to know that they can't get vaccinations at these new assessment centres, Health Minister Ron Liepert said.
"I think the wording is actually very important .… We want to ensure that we don't confuse them with clinics, because people have a certain expectation when they go to the clinic and that is that they're going to get a vaccine shot — and this is not for actual vaccine shots," he said.
Vaccination clinics will also be set up next week on university and college campuses, Duckett said, providing no other details.
Duckett apologized for the long lines at the province's mass swine flu vaccination clinics, but also praised Alberta's quick response to news last week that the vaccine had been approved.
Supplies of vaccine to slow
One more person has died of H1N1, bringing the toll in the province since April to 13. Provincial health officials don't release information about the age, hometowns or gender of people who become seriously ill from the virus, but they said 85 per cent of the people who have died had underlying medical conditions.
So far, 233 people have been hospitalized because of H1N1.
Alberta should have 600,000 doses of the vaccine by Friday, the release said. Starting Monday, supplies to the provinces will slow down while manufacturers focus on a non-adjuvanted vaccine, meant as an option for pregnant women.
Provincial health officials have said there will be enough vaccine for everyone who wants the shot to get it eventually.
Wait times at mass vaccination clinics "continue to be a concern" and people who aren't at risk for developing severe complications from H1N1 should delay getting the shot, Alberta Health said in a news release.
Also on Thursday, the president of the Canadian College of Family Physicians said the 20,000 members in the organization should have been part of the vaccination campaign.
"When you want to vaccinate a large number of people quickly, then I think as many options as you can muster are what you should be striving for," said Dr. Sarah Kredentser, who was in Calgary for a college meeting.
Alberta health officials have said they hope to get the vaccine to family doctors next week.
Complaints from those with disabilities
Since the province began its H1N1 campaign on Monday, more than 150,000 Albertans have received the vaccine, which targets the strain of H1N1 influenza A virus causing the current swine flu pandemic.
Across the province, Albertans are lining up for the shot at mass vaccination clinics. But one mother says people with disabilities have been ignored in the province's rollout.
Enduring a long lineup, likely outdoors, just isn't an option for Mezaun Evin's daughter Shari, 20, who has cerebral palsy.
"It's very scary," said Evin, a working mother who lives in Calgary. "There is a certain sense of urgency. They are once again feeling left behind. The logistical planning obviously didn't include persons with disabilities."
Calgarian Tina Bartole, 31, who also has cerebral palsy, has an electric wheelchair she can steer with her arm. Bartole inched ahead for 3½ hours Tuesday to get her shot.
"A lot of people who can't get out are risking death, pretty much. All because they couldn't get the shot, " she said.
Calgary has five mass vaccination clinics. People with disabilities are not on the list of people accepted at the high-risk, indoor clinic at the Olympic Oval. It caters to pregnant women, children aged six months to less than 10 years, seniors and family members accompanying those patients.
The Olympic Oval clinic, which opened on Wednesday to long lineups, was busy again on Thursday, with security guards telling those in line the wait will be three or four hours.
