The federal government could lose up to $1 billion in COVID-19 vaccines before the end of the year, while millions of doses still sit in government inventories, says Auditor General (AG) Karen Hogan.
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In a report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, the latter estimated that at the end of May there were 32.5 million doses in stock across the country, the overwhelming majority of which (28 million) should reach their expiry date soon.
What’s more, only half of the 169 million vaccines against COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic in Canada have found takers as of May 31, or about 84 million doses.
Ms. Hogan also notes just over 50 million “surplus” doses as of May 31, the date on which the audit was limited. Of these, more than 15 million have already been donated and Canada wants to distribute 21 million more. However, these doses could expire before being distributed.
The VG recognizes, however, that the government acted quickly by placing large orders for vaccines against COVID-19 from seven different companies in the context of a historic health crisis.
“By entering into these agreements, the government increased its chances of obtaining enough doses to provide the largest immunization program in the country’s history, while recognizing that this approach could lead to a surplus of doses if all the vaccines were one day approved,” said Karen Hogan.
Better data sharing called for
The VG points to the lack of communication between the different levels of power, in particular between the provinces, which are responsible for vaccination, and the federal government, which is responsible for supply.
“Problems with the exchange of health data” were also noted by the AG’s office “in 1999, in 2002, in 2008 and more recently in 2021”.
“There is an urgent need to address these long-standing issues, including implementing a pan-Canadian information sharing framework, as the sharing of health data is at the heart of effective surveillance to ensure the safety of the people of Canada,” she said at a press briefing.
“I wonder how many other health emergencies we have to go through as a country before we can find a solution to this. [ce problème]“, she added.
This is a problem also raised by the federal Minister of Health, Jean-Yves Duclos. The latter even made it the essential condition for increasing health transfers by the provinces.
“Our health data system is not a world-class system, it’s a mediocre class system,” he complained. He mentioned that provincial systems still used paper and fax.
It goes without saying that the Minister “welcomed” the recommendation contained in the AG’s report regarding data sharing.