Anybody brave the H1N1 clinic lines yet??

[EllasMum]

With stories of 6 hour waits at the Calgary clinics (all 4 of 'em! Yay, Calgary! ), I have opted to wait until next week to line-up for the H1N1 vax. I took the same tack with the seasonal flu shots, and waited maybe 20 minutes total, while a friend of mine who went the first week, waited almost 2 hours. Starting tomorrow, they are opening a clinic intended for pregnant women, small children (under 6?), and seniors, and any family members of those groups, to hopefully alleviate some of the crowds - not to mention the horrendously bad conditions for waiting (think no bathroom facilities, nowhere to get food/water etc). This new clinic will be at the university, where DD takes a gymnastics class, so we're going to check out the line-up after next week's class. Fingers crossed!

Anybody out there get their shot yet? How long did you have to wait?

[bubbaray]

Not yet. DD#1 and I are high risk. Our assigned health nurse (due to the girls' food allergies, we've been assigned 1 nurse to keep track of allergens and adverse reactions) was hoping to give both girls the unadjuvanted vax b/c DD#2 can't have the squalene adjuvant (is fish oil and she's anaphylactic to fish).

DH is pushing me to get the shot for DD#1 right away and not wait for the unadjuvanted version. I could get my shot right now, except I'm totally sick and really shouldn't even drive right now. Of course, DH isn't volunteering to go stand around in the rain for hours on end.

I can't even find out where our clinics are. Things are very confusing. People are lining up at health unit offices before they even announce clinics.

[MontrealMum]

We did get a large booklet from the provincial govt, which I checked out online since the English version was only available there. Followed the link to vaxes in our area and hit a dead end. But that's not too unusual w/QC govt. websites. According to all local websites (CLSC) there is none available here yet. Even though they've been talking about it on the CBC for two days now. We have a doc appt. on Thurs so will ask more then. I did hear yesterday that Canada has ordered extra non-ajuvant doses from Australia - as a priority for pregnant women. Also heard that they're expanding their age catagories of high-risk to include older kids after a child died in Ottawa? recently.

[NewfieNat]

Yes, we went yesterday. In our town just outside Calgary the waits were 3 hours. Yes, the lines in the city are often much longer, but all lines are inside. Yesterday two hours of our wait was outside. Oh it was cold! It's a toss up, more time waiting inside or less time waiting outside.

It's just not possible to vaccinate 1 million, or even half a mil if only 50% want it, in a couple of days. I do, however, have two complaints.

The first is there was no priority given to high-risk groups. My DD is on a drug that's classified as both a chemo agent and an immunosuppresent. Even a one-day head start would have cut much of that line.

The second is that many of the people in line around us were not from town and trying to escape longer waits. Yes, they have every right to do so just as we see a family doc in Calgary, BUT, the rural clinics are simply not set up to deal with those numbers of people. Here, it's only open 12 hours a week and staffed by less nurses.

Here is the link, the video is different than the article. Like I said earlier, I'm trying hard to not complain too much because it could be way, way worse.

http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/loc...ub=CalgaryHome

[mikeys_mom]

The Toronto area clinics were scheduled to open to the public next week but due to the death of a 13 year old boy from the H1N1 virus many are opening today. They are requesting that only those in the high risk groups
get the shot this week and everyone else wait until next week.

Clinic locations and times are pretty clearly listed on the websites of the city of Toronto and the surrounding municipalities. We are north of Toronto but will probably go to the city of Toronto ones because there are more of them.

I was at my family doctor for the twins 8 month appt yesterday and she told me very few doctors offices have access to the vaccine so most people will have to go to the public clinics.

She said that I need to make sure everyone in my house including my nanny get vaccinated because the twins are so young. Even though they are healthy and do not have any delays because they were preemies their immune systems could be compromised. I am not usually afraid of illness or germs but this has me a bit freaked out.

We will probably wait and see what the reports are on the wait times and either go tomorrow or wait until early next week.

[chinook]

We went yesterday - it was a 4 1/2 hour ordeal (NewfieNat I suspect we were both in Airdrie!) I thought the outlying communities would be faster but it wasn't. BRUTAL! I'm glad we got it over with, though.

[bubbaray]

Can you believe this -- OUR health authority has decided to NOT have clinics. If you are high risk, you can only get the shot via your doctor. BUT, my/the girls' doctor is in a DIFFERENT health authority and that one is mainly doing clinics, so the doc's there are running out. WTF? And, something like 50% of the population here doesn't HAVE a family doc, so they are out of luck, even if they are high risk.

This is so @#$% stupid. It really doesn't matter if the feds have enough vax for everyone if the stupid provinces can't get it together and DISTRIBUTE the stuff.

I'm so stinkin' mad.

[EllasMum]

Seems to be startlingly varying stories regarding wait times around here. I heard some coworkers saying they'd gone late afternoon yesterday, and were in and out in 10 minutes. OTOH, the news still had stories of people waiting 4-5 hours. WTF? The city did open a clinic especially for high risk groups (pregnant women, kids 6 mo-10yo, seniors, anyone who accompanies them) and apparently the wait was horrendous. Also, still no seating, and just general chaos. What a nightmare. I am waiting until next week in hopes that some of the chaos will subside.

Melissa - the situation in BC clearly sucks. So if you don't have a family doctor you can't get the shot?? Here in Alberta, they're going to authorize pharmacists to give the shot, and doctors will be able to administer it starting early November.

[MontrealMum]

This is so @#$% stupid. It really doesn't matter if the feds have enough vax for everyone if the stupid provinces can't get it together and DISTRIBUTE the stuff.

.

This is what I just don't get. I know they supposedly have shortages in the US, but I was just talking about this with MIL - who has her own beef with it - and she says there's plenty, it's just they can't get their act together with distributing it. For example, she lives in another municipality from us, and the govt. told them that they had to be able to provide inside room, all day, for 5000 people - and parking for that many cars. This is basically a downtown community. There isn't space for that many cars anywhere w/in a certain radius of Mtl. So, they won't be doing it where she lives because they're not "allowed". She, and the huge and mostly aging population that lives where she does is expected to trek halfway across the island - to a community that isn't served by the metro, and barely by buses - to get the shot. Luckily she's heard that since she volunteers at the hospital that she can get on a list there for the shot instead.

But I still don't know what the rest of us are supposed to do. There is NOTHING in terms of info. Going to the family doc tomorrow, so we'll see.

[bubbaray]

DD#1 and I are getting at our GP tomorrow.

I heard our Chief Public Health officer on the news tonight and he said that Canada will produce more vax per capital than any other country.

Totally as an aside -- this afternoon I em'd our Chief Public Health Officer with a question about which vax DD#2 should get (anaphylactic to fish) and how to get it for her. He em'd back (from a blackberry) in 5 min. I was SERIOUSLY impressed. I guess I caught him in between interviews. Anyway, he was VERY helpful. So, kudos for that.

I think the root of all the problems is the breakdown of Federal/Provincial jurisdictions. The Feds need to involk the War Measures Act or something and say here are the priority groups, here is the schedule and here are the clinic locations. Period. Same rules for everyone across the country.