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A Christchurch woman says she feels left in the dark after trying to organize a vaccine for her immunocompromised husband.
Christchurch resident Anne Norriss is on a mission to get her husband, a cancer survivor, vaccinated.
Photo: AFP
Vaccine deployment for people at risk of getting very sick from Covid-19 began in May.
But some find it difficult to access the vaccine.
This raises fears that the number of Pzifer vaccines will dry up quickly – before the next deliveries are due.
Christchurch resident Anne Norriss is on a mission to vaccinate her husband David, 72.
His GP told him that if he caught Covid-19, he would die.
“He’s immunocompromised as a cancer survivor… The side effect that happened a year or more after the chemo was that it caused heart failure. [During] the hospitalization in March, they weren’t really sure what was going on, but after 10 days they determined he was now in kidney failure, ”she said.
He fell into Group 3 of the government rollout that began last month, but Anne Norriss said she felt stuck when she tried to set up a vaccine appointment for him.
Last week she unsuccessfully called the national Covid-19 hotline and the Christchurch Covid-19 vaccination number.
Norriss visited his GP on Tuesday hoping to find out what he needed to do to get one.
“And the GP just put his hands up and said ‘nothing to do with us. We can never give it to you, nor can the pharmacy next door that provides flu shots and made for the yonks. do with us. Never ask again, ”she said.
“So when I asked David about it, he just didn’t have the answers to questions like, why not.”
Canterbury DHB Covid-19 executive officer Ralph La Salle said the DHB was sorry to learn about Ms Norriss’ experience and understood her concern for her husband.
It would take months to vaccinate Group 3 in Canterbury, as there were more than 170,000 eligible people, he said.
“When it is someone’s turn to make an appointment, they will be contacted directly with instructions on how to book. This will be by text, email, letter or phone call.
“We ask people in Group 3 who have not yet been contacted to be patient. It is important to remember that there is no Covid-19 in our communities and that our government has obtained enough vaccines so that anyone 16 years of age and over can potentially be vaccinated. “
The DHB had recently published ads in all local newspapers about it and had a website dedicated to the vaccination, La Salle said.
But Anne Norriss said that was not what her Covid-19 hotline or her husband’s GP told her, and she was even told to make an appointment in another region.
“It’s kind of like you have to know someone or be someone to get a vaccine over your shoulder. It’s not enough to be sick like a dog or immunocompromised, I should describe my husband better as. “
Royal New Zealand College of GPs medical director Dr Bryan Betty had heard reports that eligible people did not know how to get vaccinated.
There seemed to be two main reasons.
“Number one – there is variability in what different DHBs do in terms of patient groups in sequence three accessing the vaccine. So that leads to some inconsistency in terms of what’s out there.”
The second reason was the vaccine supply.
“There are enough vaccines entering the country, but a large part is now arriving in July, so the vaccine supply at the moment does not quite match the demand that exists for patients to be vaccinated and in some areas patients are limited in their access to the vaccine just at this point until the vaccine is available in July, ”he said.
The Department of Health has confirmed that there are enough Pfizer vaccines to keep DHBs on top of more than half a million vaccinations over the next five weeks.
Procurement to be managed with care – Bloomfield
Chief Health Officer Ashley Bloomfield said Pfizer has confirmed that New Zealand will receive one million doses of the vaccine in July.
“We also continue to receive weekly vaccine supplies until June as well. Stocks will be tight for the next five weeks and we have carefully planned to manage our way,” he said.
“Ongoing bookings will not be affected. But DHB will likely have to manage the rate of new bookings to ensure they are delivering according to their current plans, where to date many have been ahead of their plan for some time. time.”
Dr Ashley Bloomfield
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The ministry asked the DHB to ensure that people in group 3 receive an invitation to be vaccinated by the end of July at the latest.
Vaccinations for anyone 16 years of age or older are expected to start from the end of July.
Dr Bloomfield said Checkpoint that the Nelson / Marlborough, Northland and Southern DHBs had been ahead of the plan.
Now it was important to ensure that all DHBs could vaccinate their priority groups and honor the appointments already made.
He said the supply of 189,000 doses would be topped up every week, so there was no risk of running out of Pfizer before the 1 million doses started arriving next month.
“We are not going to run out of Pfizer because as we should be, responsibly we make sure to work with DHBs to deliver according to their plans…
“It’s great that we’ve been ahead of schedule and now we’re going to make sure all DHBs are able to achieve what they plan to accomplish – 100% of their plans within the next five weeks. “
The invitation to get vaccinated will come from general practitioners or DHBs and from mid-July the national reservation system will be available and he is convinced that it is on the right track.
Some DHBs have yet to vaccinate nursing home residents and the Department of Health has asked them to ensure they have received at least a first dose by the end of June, Dr Bloomfield said.
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