Telus at fault for booking system chaos, Dix says
Vancouver Coastal Health's vaccination booking system was so disastrous on Monday and early Tuesday that the Liberals called it a “fiasco,” the health minister faulted Telus for failing British Columbians, and the head of the province's immunization plan offered to put on a headset and help overstretched call takers.
Dr. Penny Ballem, leader for B.C.'s immunization strategy, said it was “devastating ” witnessing the call centre backlogs that plagued the first two days of immunization bookings for B.C. residents 90 and older and Indigenous elders 65 and older.
Many people attempting to dial in to the Vancouver Coastal call centre on Tuesday still reported being greeted by either busy signals or a recorded message informing them that “all circuits are still busy.”
“(Monday) was a terrible day for us,” Ballem told Postmedia News, adding that on Monday she trained to be able to take calls in case she could help call takers. Ballem was told her expertise would be more valuable elsewhere.
Of the 15,000 appointments booked on Monday, only 369 were in Vancouver Coastal Health. Another
12,346 people across B.C. booked appointments as of 5 p.m. Tuesday with 3,103 bookings in Vancouver Coastal, which Ballem said is the result of adding more call takers, while 3,568 people booked their vaccinations in Fraser Health.
Health Minister Adrian Dix said the province is working with Telus, the company contracted to run the call centres, to address the technical glitches and insufficient staff that made it near impossible for callers to get through.
“To say I'm disappointed and frustrated would be an understatement,” Dix said.
The problems were most acute in Vancouver Coastal Health, Dix said, because it relied solely on Telus, while the other four health authorities had their own backup call centres.
Ballem said the other health authorities have had call centre teams in place for booking COVID tests, but Vancouver Coastal instead relied on a digital system for communicating COVID test results.
“Without an existing call centre in our organization that we could pivot to, we were left really strapped,” said Ballem, who is chair of the board at VCH. She said the health authority trained 20 of its own staff overnight on Monday to shore up the call centre.
Bill Gardner, a 98-year-old West Vancouver resident, called VCH to book a vaccine appointment about a dozen times on Monday.
“I'm not going to call over and over. That's just contributing to the problem,” said Gardner, who lives independently with his 93-yearold wife Christine.
The system should allow people to leave a callback number, he said. He quipped that the province should have hired a company that sells concert tickets to oversee the vaccine bookings.
Gardner is worried that if he doesn't get an appointment this week, the call lines will be even busier next week as the system opens up for people 85 and older.
The B.C. Liberals criticized the government on Tuesday for not being better prepared to handle the high call volumes. Opposition leader Shirley Bond said the situation “descended into chaos” for vulnerable seniors and their loved ones desperately waiting for vaccine, while Liberal MLA Todd Stone said Dix and Premier John Horgan must take responsibility for the “fiasco.”
More than half of the bookings Monday — 8,722 — were in the Fraser Health region, the only health authority equipped for people to book appointments online. Interior Health and Island Health each made just under 2,500 bookings, while there were 1,007 bookings in the Northern Health Authority.
Fraser Health, which has consistently had the highest number of COVID -19 cases, created its online tool last summer to book COVID tests. The health authority adapted that tool to book vaccines while the province had to build an online booking tool from scratch for the other health authorities.
Dix wouldn't say why the province didn't have online systems ready for all health authorities, but said the provincewide online booking system will be ready by April 12.
Horgan told reporters Tuesday the government takes full responsibility for the “extremely disappointing” call centre backlog.
Ballem said she was in direct contact with Telus' CEO late Monday and early Tuesday morning about what went wrong and how the problems would be fixed.
In a statement Tuesday, Telus CEO Darren Entwistle apologized for the call centre failures and promised to add more staff.