A nurse from Trois-Rivières, in Mauricie, wanted to raise the yellow flag since she had to throw away dozens of doses of the Moderna vaccine since the beginning of January, for lack of clients who do not show up for their appointment. you.
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The phenomenon of “no-shows”, people who do not show up for their appointment, continues to rage in Mauricie pharmacies that offer the vaccine against COVID-19. A distressing observation faced by the nurse Monique Rhéaume at the pharmacy where she works on vaccinations two days a week.
People don’t show up and forget to cancel their appointment. As a result of the races, she had to throw away more than 30 Moderna doses since January 4th. Last Saturday, 20 appointments were scheduled, but seven people failed.
“In all pharmacies, we throw away doses. We nurses were flabbergasted to see this. At one point, I called the CIUSSS crying to tell them that it didn’t make sense what was happening,” explained the nurse.
Nonsense for this retiree who came back to lend a hand to the network. In order to limit the losses, she will herself offer the vaccine at the end of the day to people who are waiting in the medical clinics near the complex which houses the pharmacy. “The radiology clinic is next door so I walk up and ask them who wants to get vaccinated? Come away.”
According to several pharmacists to whom TVA Nouvelles spoke, it is young people who are more likely to give up, a phenomenon that forces them to adapt in order to reduce “no-shows”.
The president of the Quebec Association of Pharmacists Owners, Benoit Morin, argued that more and more members are showing short-term availability only. “Otherwise people try to find a better date elsewhere and forget to cancel.”
The phenomenon also affects mass vaccination clinics. In Trois-Rivières, 901 people did not show up for their appointment during the week of January 16, while in Shawinigan, the number is 214. The person in charge of the Trois-Rivières vaccination site, Élyse Dufour, ensured that vaccine losses are minimal. “It’s not much. There are even days when you don’t throw it away.”
The Mauricie-et-du-Centre-du-Québec Integrated Health and Social Services Center (CIUSSS) has set up logistics to avoid the loss of vials and adjusts during the day, according to Ms. Dufour .
“We calculate the number of registrants in the morning and we subtract 10 to 30% from the start. At the end of the day, often, we will make people wait a little longer to make sure we have the right number of doses for the vials, ”she said.
The campaign for the 3and dose advance with more than 215,000 doses injected. But one of the main challenges for the CIUSSS remains to reach and convince the 40,000 people still unvaccinated in the region.