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Alberta changes vaccine tact |
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Written by THE CANADIAN PRESS & LETHBRIDGE HERALD
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Tuesday, 03 November 2009 |
Alberta is revamping its swine flu vaccination program to focus the remaining doses of a dwindling supply on pregnant women and children between six months and five years of age.
After this highest priority group, people under 65 with chronic health conditions will be next in line for the shots, Health Minister Ron Liepert announced Monday.
Liepert said the province remains committed to giving the vaccine within the next two months to all Albertans who want it.
“No one likes to turn away citizens of this province from receiving their vaccination, but unfortunately with a limited supply we are left with no choice,” he told the legislature.
Swine flu has become an increasingly volatile issue for Premier Ed Stelmach’s Tory government and the NDP forced an emergency debate in the assembly Monday.
NDP Leader Brian Mason said people have been flooding his office with complaints since the vaccinations began a week ago.
“People right across the province are concerned, many of them are angry, frustrated and scared,” said Mason. “This government has shown that it couldn’t manage a lemonade stand.”
Provincial health officials originally offered shots to all residents last week while asking healthy Albertans to give high-risk groups priority.
However, overwhelming demand and a slowdown in delivery from the federal government led to a significant shortage of the vaccine. Clinics were suspended on the weekend after roughly 10 per cent of Albertans had been immunized.
Liepert confirmed Monday that Alberta’s supply of vaccine has been reduced to 180,000 doses after 400,000 people were vaccinated in just six days.
The province is expecting another 50,000 doses of the regular vaccine on Thursday plus several thousand doses of the vaccine reserved for use in pregnant women.
“Then we have no guarantee next week what we’re going to get,” he said.
The minister said the province has no choice but to restrict vaccinations while the vaccine is in short supply. He stressed that the new vaccination plan, which will be released today, will be strictly enforced.
Just as many questions remain locally, although an Alberta Health Services spokesman said Monday that clinics originally scheduled for Lethbridge, Pincher Creek and Taber today and Wednesday will have to be cancelled. They hope to have further word over the next few days on the fate of those H1N1 clinics which had been scheduled to run in those communities through Saturday, before word of the vaccine shortage was released.
Plans are also still being finalized as to the location and start-up date for an H1N1 assessment clinic in Lethbridge for those who have already become ill with flu-like symptoms.
The goal is to direct those people away from local medical clinics and emergency departments, which have become bogged down with the influx of patients that might be better dealt with elsewhere. Medicine Hat opened its assessment centre Monday.
The latest roadblock comes after some of the problems which had plagued clinics across southern Alberta - including long lineups spent out in the cold - looked like they were being addressed.
Liepert has become a lightning rod for criticism over Alberta’s H1N1 immunization program, which has been plagued by long lineups in Edmonton and Calgary and virtually no vaccine in rural communities.
Liberal Opposition Leader David Swann repeated his call Monday for Liepert to resign.
“Thousands of the most vulnerable Albertans are still exposed to this virus and have no protection,” said Swann. “The minister has shown himself to be incapable of managing the system.”
But Liepert brushed off the criticism, telling the assembly that 400,000 vaccinations in one week is “an amazing accomplishment.”
Earlier in the day, Liepert was called to a hastily organized meeting with Premier Ed Stelmach to provide an update on the flu pandemic.
Stelmach cancelled events in Calgary to attend the meeting with Liepert and Dr. Andre Corriveau, Alberta’s chief medical health officer, several other cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats.
Corriveau defended the initial decision not to place restrictions on the vaccinations to ensure that high-risk people were given priority.
“It was a strategy we felt was respectful of people, but over the weekend we realized we had to adjust that strategy,” he said. “And I think every province is doing the same.”
In Calgary, the head of the government agency in charge of rolling out the vaccine said he won’t apologize for the decisions made early on.
Stephen Duckett, president of Alberta Health Services, told reporters that offering the vaccine to everyone means fewer people will be able to spread the virus.
“So I’m not going to stand back and say, ’Look, I’m sorry we vaccinated 370,000 people.’ I think that’s a good achievement.”
Duckett said it was more efficient at first to vaccinate everyone because no time was wasted by screening everyone to make sure they were really at higher risk of complications.
He said it also kept “line rage” from developing in people who accompanied high-risk friends of family members for hours only to be refused the vaccine themselves.
The decision also helped protect people’s privacy because people with chronic illnesses that may not be visible were not forced to prove their need for the vaccine in a very public forum.
Without the slowdown in supply and an unanticipated spike in demand, the government would have been able to keep up that policy, he said.
Liepert said the large number of vaccinations already given will also help reduce the number of people forced to seek hospital treatment.
An Alberta Health Services flu plan released last month predicted that up to 11,000 Albertans will be hospitalized after becoming infected with H1N1.
Corriveau said Alberta has been moving quickly to vaccinate people in high-risk groups.
“We’ve done a lot of the priority groups, like most of the health care workers and a large portion of the aboriginal community, in the north especially,” he said.
So far, 14 people have died in Alberta after contracting swine flu and nearly 300 people have been hospitalized.
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