EDMONTON –As Alberta health officials decide to send any new shipments of flu vaccine to public health clinics, people in rural areas raise concerns about accessibility.
On Wednesday, the province said a group of health experts determined to direct any new shipments of flu vaccine to Alberta Health Services (AHS) public health clinics for “easier distribution and centralized access for Albertans.”
Nearly one million Albertans have received the flu vaccine so far. On Tuesday, the province secured an additional 65,000 doses of vaccine, but health officials expect that to run out by the end of the week.
“Because we are approaching the end of our supply on hand in Alberta, we will not be shipping additional vaccine to pharmacies across the province,” said Health Minister Fred Horne.
Vaccines that are still in pharmacies and doctors’ offices will stay there, but new shipments will be sent to mass clinics.
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On Tuesday, Premier Alison Redford reassured the public there is enough flu vaccine to meet demand.
“There is no reason for anyone to be panicking,” she said. “Everyone who has wanted to get this has been able to get it up until now.”
READ MORE: Nearly 1 million Albertans vaccinated against influenza
However, a pharmacist in Redwater says that has not been his experience.
“Within Redwater, currently there’s nobody that has any flu vaccine,” said Theodor Wentland.
“We have four doctors here, and as far as we know, they’ve all been out of vaccine, the hospital doesn’t have any vaccine, and we don’t have any vaccine. So, the closest place for people to drive to would be Gibbons public health.”
Wentland says even Gibbons was struggling to meet the demand.
“That leaves our patients in a situation where they would have to travel to mass immunization clinics in Edmonton.”
Redwater is about 60 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.
“I phoned this morning to see if I could get a flu shot and she said they didn’t have any and they didn’t know when they would expect any,” said Raeanne Barkhouse, who lives in Redwater.
“It’s very frustrating, especially because I rely on this pharmacy.”
Wentland said the pharmacy ordered more shipments of the vaccine last week.
“We were expecting some, and we had… way more patients than we had vaccine.”
But the order didn’t arrive.
Wentland said he called the flu depot and was told “there is vaccine available… But the order was cancelled due to a ministerial order, they told us.”
“What we’re seeing right now is inequality of distribution between urban centres and rural areas and that’s the real problem,” says Wentland.
“The premier was on the TV or the radio saying there’s enough flu vaccine to meet the demands of Albertans,” he adds. “That’s great, but if the flu vaccine is not in an area where the demand is, it doesn’t help Albertans.”
Now, the situation is causing concern for some residents.
“It’s very frustrating,” says Barkhouse. “As a citizen, I wasn’t going to get a flu shot until I saw some of the deaths that were occurring around my age group. That really scared me… I’m nervous.”
As of Tuesday, nine Albertans had died because of the flu, 70 were in intensive care, and a total of 288 were hospitalized.
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