Glenys Verhulst booked a combined COVID and flu shot through the province’s online GetVaccinated registration system, but when she arrived, she was told they were out of flu doses.
So Verhulst, a planner in her 40s, tried to re-book the flu shot via the GetVaccinated site, but couldn’t get an appointment. A phone call to GetVaccinated resulted in a December date in Sidney — but Verhulst doesn’t have a car.
Verhulst took to Twitter and Facebook to note her dissatisfaction this weekend and was tipped off about a pharmacy taking appointments. She got a Nov. 15 date. Better yet, she gave the provincial system another go and snagged an appointment today at a Walmart pharmacy.
“But who knows if that happens,” said Verhulst. “It’s a constantly shifting situation.”
Verhulst, who has asthma, usually gets her flu shot in late September or early October. In keeping her backup appointment until she gets her shot today, she acknowledges she’s adding to the administrative problems.
“I think that if you weren’t really dedicated to getting a shot, it might make you give up,” Verhulst said Monday.
For the first time in B.C., influenza immunizations are available for free to anyone six months and older, administered in about 1,300 pharmacies and health-authority clinics rather than in doctors’ offices. The rollout, launched Oct. 11 — two weeks earlier than in previous years — has been rocky.
People are required to wait for invitations from the GetVaccinated system to book appointments online, but the supply at pharmacies can be unreliable, as Verhulst discovered, and the system has been glitchy, with many pharmacies showing no appointments for months.
Advice offered on social media includes expanding search parameters to other municipalities, changing postal codes, monitoring the online system regularly for openings, trying different pharmacies or watching for advertised walk-in clinics.
At a press conference in Vancouver on Monday, Health Minister Adrian Dix said that about 400,000 flu shots have been administered around the province, in addition to 700,000 to 800,000 bivalent Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. The COVID booster campaign kicked off Sept. 6 and now people can get both flu and COVID shots in one appointment.
“We’re off to an extremely good start in our flu-shot campaign,” said Dix. “We’re well ahead of the pace of last year and the year before.
A Health Ministry spokesperson, meanwhile, said the online glitches experienced by users of the GetVaccinated system in the first week are now “mostly resolved.”
“We’re still learning,” said the spokesperson, noting the process is new and Immunize B.C. continues to monitor the system with an eye to improving it. “We apologize for any confusion or frustration this caused.”
The Health Ministry said although it recommends booking influenza vaccination through the GetVaccinated system, walk-in appointments continue to be available at many pharmacies throughout the province.
Torrance Coste posted on social media that there were lots of appointments in his area of Mill Bay. In a follow-up exchange, however, he said while he was booked within a week for a COVID-19 vaccine booster and flu shot in one appointment, when he arrived at the Duncan location, they were out of COVID shots. He’s now booked to get his booster in another few weeks.
Last week, the Times Colonist reported that family doctors are frustrated with the new system, which only allows them to order flu shots for patients who would have difficulty accessing vaccination clinics — for example, those with mobility issues. They also, in some cases, are having difficulty getting their own shots.
Anesthesiolgist Greg Allen at Saanich Peninsula Hospital said staff in hospitals used to get their flu shots at work so they had immunity when the flu hit. “Not this year — ‘someone’ decided to throw hospital staff into the same messed-up system as everyone else,” said Allen, who couldn’t get an appointment until Dec. 9. His colleague in Duncan could only find an open appointment on Salt Spring Island.
With the triple threat of an early flu season, other serious respiratory illnesses such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) expected to make a strong comeback, and another wave of COVID, “I don’t know who will be looking after the patients if we are all off sick,” he said.
Allen is worried the influenza season will resemble that experienced in Australia, which saw its worst flu season in five years.
A Health Ministry spokesperson said while influenza vaccine stocks are prioritized for pharmacies participating in the fall booster campaign, there are still instances where people are able to get their flu shot at a workplace clinic or through their primary care provider.
As for health-care workers, Island Health said while medical and other staff are directed to make appointments through the provincial booking system, the health authority “will be offering onsite options” for getting the flu shot, with details to come.
B.C. Pharmacy Association spokeswoman Angie Gaddy said pharmacies are administering a large percentage of the flu shots and while the GetVaccinated system has had glitches, it’s also “helping drive demand for flu shots, which is great.”
“The system will also give B.C. an accurate record of influenza vaccines that will help with future planning, which we didn’t have before,” Gaddy said.
Those unable to book online at getvaccinated.gov.bc.ca can phone the call centre at 1-833-838-2323 to book an appointment.
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