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No workplace vaccinations |
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Written by Dave Mabell Lethbridge Herald
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Wednesday, October 07 2009, 10:04 PM |
Southern Albertans won’t be getting seasonal flu shots at work, health officials confirm.
Vaccination clinics in Lethbridge-area workplaces were scheduled to start later this month. But We Care Home Health, the region’s largest workplace provider, said Wednesday the province’s health officials are unable to supply the needed serum.
And Dianne Shaw, the province’s executive director for public health in southern Alberta, said while everyone is eligible to get a seasonal flu shot when public clinics open next week, her major concern is getting the H1N1 vaccine later this fall to all who request it.
Cyndi Malitowski, CEO of We Care in Lethbridge, said her nurses administered about 2,000 seasonal flu shots during on-site clinics at Lethbridge workplaces last year. Employers paid to have their staff members protected.
This week, she said, government officials told her she could get only 200 doses.
“The employers are stressed right out,” she said. “I feel really bad.”
Some Lethbridge companies have been offering flu shots to their staff members for close to a decade and they were anxious to get on with seasonal flu shots knowing the H1N1 vaccine won’t be available until later this year.
“These employers were counting on us,” Malitowski said. “Now I have to tell them I just don’t know what’s going on.”
One of the region’s longest-serving vaccination providers, the Victorian Order of Nurses, had no better news. Officials in Lethbridge and Medicine Hat could not say what would happen with clinics they’d booked for this month.
In Lethbridge, meanwhile, Alberta Health Services has announced vaccinations will be available next week, targeting infants, seniors and pregnant mothers. People living with a chronic medical condition, people living in group or continuing-care locations — and people who are in contact with any of these groups — are also encouraged to get the vaccination, which will be free for all who attend.
“Every citizen will be able to receive the vaccine,” Shaw said.
Flu shots will be offered on a first-come basis, Tuesday through Thursday from noon to 7 p.m. at the main building on the fairgrounds. During last fall’s mass vaccination exercise, she said, officials monitored how long people waited.
“The majority of people waited 20 to 40 minutes at most,” she said.
Those weekday hours won’t help many of the region’s larger employers, Malitowski pointed out.
“You can’t shut down a 300-person plant for an afternoon,” and ask everyone to join a queue.
Shaw said once the H1N1 flu vaccine arrives, health officials will ask employers to encourage all their staff to get that protection.
“The more people get vaccinated, the less the disease will spread.”
While seniors may be most vulnerable to seasonal flu, Shaw said it’s young adults who seem at greatest risk with H1N1. Most illnesses are mild, she stressed.
“But for young adults who contact a severe form (of H1N1) it is life-threatening.”
So far, Shaw added, there have been more cases of H1N1 reported in Canada than the seasonal flu.
She said mass vaccinations will begin when H1N1 serum arrives, some time in mid-November. Shaw said clinics will be open daytime, evenings and weekends to allow everyone access.
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