Fraser Health not keeping up with vaccinations, says worried doctor
An Abbotsford doctor is concerned some B.C. kids may be missing their routine childhood vaccinations due to pandemic-related scheduling issues.
Lauren Swann said she first became aware of the problem through her patients, some of whom were struggling to make appointments for their babies' first vaccinations.
When Swann tried to schedule her 18-month-old son's vaccinations in Abbotsford last week, she ran into the same problem.
“At one point, there was a wait time of 1,000 minutes just to make an appointment,” she said.
Swann tried to book an appointment through Fraser Health's central booking line three times. Each time, she was put on hold with the shortest wait time estimated at 300 minutes, and the longest at 1,000 minutes.
She tried to leave her phone number using the system's call-back feature, but it didn't work the first time. This Wednesday, she was able to leave her number, but as of Friday, had not yet received a call back.
When she tried to book on Friday morning, the wait time was up to 300 minutes.
“If I'm a motivated parent and I can't get an appointment. It's concerning for people who are not as motivated, who might be on the fence, or are busy,” she said.
Swann, a doctor, is also concerned because public health nurses are sometimes the only point of contact with the medical system for people who don't have a family doctor.
“In the Fraser Valley in particular, it can be tough to get a family doctor. When parents bring their children to be immunized, they are typically weighed, they see a nurse, they get well-baby information. Not having that increases vulnerabilities,” she said.
It is unclear if childhood vaccinations are occurring in Abbotsford. Swann said she and her colleagues have heard of patients being sent to neighbouring communities.
With a population of 150,000 people, that seems “a little crazy,” she said. “For people who don't drive, taking a bus to Mission with a young child during COVID would be difficult.”
Children in B.C. receive vaccinations at two, four, six, 12 and 18 months of age, and again when they begin Kindergarten, for illnesses such as whooping cough, measles, tetanus and polio.
There were 31 measles cases in B.C. between January and July 2019, according to an epidemiological survey released by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control. Most cases were linked to travel, including three school-aged children who acquired an infection while travelling in Vietnam. Upon returning to Vancouver, they transmitted the infection to four other students, and an additional six cases were identified among those exposed in medical settings or households.
In 2014, there was a measles outbreak in the Fraser Valley, with 343 cases reported, the majority in members of a religious community that objects to vaccination.
Swann said that as the pandemic continues, she hopes health authorities are tracking childhood vaccination rates to ensure herd immunity isn't negatively impacted.
“I'm ultimately curious if Fraser Health has considered the impacts of closing the Abbotsford site, if they're aware of the wait times, and if anyone is looking at vaccination rates,” she said. “If we are dealing with this pandemic for another year or more, we don't want to see immunization rates fall to the point where we risk serious consequences.”
In a statement, Fraser Health said it is seeing “high call volumes” to its central phone line, but it does not anticipate it will “have any impact on the overall immunization rate.”
The health authority said it is increasing staff to handle the calls, which it attributed to people trying to make an appointment for a flu shot.
“At this time, some parents may be redirected to public health units in neighbouring communities if there are no appointment times available on the day they are looking for in the community of their choice,” said the statement. “We apologize for any inconvenience this is causing.”
Postmedia questions about vaccination capacity in Abbotsford were not answered, as well as if there is any backlog due to COVID-19.
Postmedia also asked Vancouver Coastal Health about the status of its childhood immunization program and how it has been impacted by the pandemic.
In a statement, the health authority said it is monitoring the program closely, including wait times, so that “children in particular are not delayed in receiving this protection.”
The statement noted that in Phase 1 of B.C.'s restart plan, Coastal Health expanded capacity at childhood immunization clinics to offset the pandemic's impacts. While the program for school-aged children was also affected when schools closed in March, many kids were immunized in clinics that ran through the summer.
“We are also aware that some parents chose to not have their children immunized because of concerns about potential exposure to COVID-19,” said the statement. “We want to assure parents that it is safe to have their children immunized, even during this time, and it's very important that immunizations for young children not be deferred.”