Last demanding flu season prompts more clinics in PAPHR

After last year’s flu season where the demand for vaccines was so high the Prince Albert Parkland Health Region (PAPHR) ran out for a short time, this year it’s prepared.

Wanda Atcheson, director of public services for the PAPHR, said the province is bringing in 450,000 doses.  This is higher than last year’s initial 280,000 doses brought in.  One of the reasons for the surge was the increasing flu-related deaths during the H1N1 outbreak (the strain of flu for that season) at the time.

Out of those deaths, none of the patients were immunized.  To ensure more people have access to the vaccine, the PAPHR is opening several more clinics over previous years.

“Last year, our influenza season started about in November and typically we like to start to get people immunized in October, and so we did as usual. Then we had a second wave of influenza in January and there were a lot of people that were presented to us that had not had their flu vaccine before,” she said.

What was different about this wave of influenza is it was strain B, as opposed to the earlier strain, and it affected a younger population, according Atcheson.

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“So, we were seeing young adults and adults up to about 64; not the senior population that we would necessarily typically see as having complication develop from the flu, so it was a younger age category so then we saw a lot more other age groups wanting to get their flu shots.”

This year she said they wanted to make flu vaccines are more accessible to more age groups.

“We tried to look at where else can we offer our flu vaccine to make sure not just seniors are getting or not just the preschool population in our child health clinics where it’s offered as a routine vaccine, but also those other age groups that don’t typically come in,” she explained.

Some of the places you’ll be seeing clinics pop up include Access Place, City Hall, Share-A-Meal Food Bank, as well as a second public clinic in some rural communities on a Saturday to encourage family attendance.  In addition, the PAPHR has partnered with select schools to offer flu shots to families during parent-teacher interviews.

“We’ll offer parents and their children to be immunized if they haven’t already been to one of the walk-in clinics,” Atcheson said.

Because the South Hill Mall influenza clinic has been popular, according Atcheson, a second clinic will open in the Gateway Mall in hopes to be another central location for the public.

“We never know what an influenza season is going to be like or when it’s going to start, so our suggestion is once the influenza vaccine becomes available people should plan to come in to those clinics to get it,” she said.

With more clinics, comes more labour and Atcheson said they have the staff to accommodate the increase.

“When we plan out our locations we make sure that we staff accordingly and during our flu season every year we add on some additional casual staff and make sure we have sufficient staffing for that,” she said, adding volunteers also help with traffic flow through the clinic.

Clinics are intensively planned from Oct.14 to the first week of November.  They will continue after that date, but on more of a weekly basis, she said.

The PAPHR doesn’t know how many people to expect to want to a flu shot because of last year’s spread, however Atcheson hopes for the best and would like to see everyone get immunized.

“We are just aiming to make sure we have sufficient clinics that everybody in the region can have access to the flu shot.”

The free vaccine will be available across the province on Tuesday for all residents six months and older.

Saskatchewan’s Chief Medical Health Officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab, said the vaccine is particularly important for people at high risk of serious complications from influenza, such as nursing home residents and adults 65 and older.

And new this flu season, health-care workers must either get the shot themselves or wear a mask. The new policy was announced in July in an effort to improve Saskatchewan’s influenza immunization rates. In January, Health Minister Dustin Duncan first expressed concern that only 50 per cent of health-care staff in the province voluntarily get immunized.  This policy will also applly to visitors to health-care centres.

For a list of when and where flu clinics will be held click here or here.

sstone@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahstone84