A paNOW reader submitted this screenshot to show how many calls they placed to try and book a COVID vaccine. (submitted photo)

By Jeff D'Andrea

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Seniors ‘cranked up’ over repeatedly phoning SHA for a vaccine to no avail

Jan 22, 2021 | 2:44 PM

Some Prince Albert seniors found out just how difficult and frustrating it can be to secure a vaccine from Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA).

On Monday, the SHA announced it would hold clinics in Prince Albert on both Tuesday and Wednesday —but they were only available by appointment. And the only way to make an appointment was to call in to a 1-877 number, and appointments would be given on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Norman Vetter, a 70-year-old from Prince Albert, said he made close to 100 calls to the number on Monday but was never able to speak to anybody. In a lot of cases, the line was so overwhelmed that it didn’t actually work.

“It kept on saying ‘this number is currently unavailable,’ and I thought they were just busy,” Vetter said. “Every now and again [I thought] I’d get through, but then they said, ‘due to the high volume of calls, we can’t take your calls, so call back later.’ So I just didn’t get through… I was just a little cranked up that day, and more excited than I needed to be.”

Although Vetter has had some time to cool down since his frustrations earlier in the week, he still is a little miffed about how there wasn’t any communication from the government as to if or when the clinic was full.

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The only option he felt he had was to continually call the number, despite how tedious and fruitless the process became.

“I can readily understand if there aren’t many spots available, they can be filled up quickly. And if they are filled up quickly, they could quite easily put [on] an automated message,” Vetter said.

‘The runaround’

Morris Morton, a 72-year-old from Prince Albert, had a much different journey before receiving the same result.

Morton said he was told to call HealthLine 811. Although that wasn’t the direct line for the vaccinations, Morton said he was never ushered to the right place.

Morton recalls being continually redirected, where he phoned around eight or nine different phone numbers. At one point, Morton said he was redirected to somebody in the health insurance department.

“It’s actually too funny if you get into it for too long,” Morton said with a laugh. “It was really difficult.”

And throughout his long and winding journey through the phone lines, Morton was never pointed in the clinic’s direction before all the spots filled up. In fact, he didn’t find out that there weren’t any spots left in the vaccination clinic until he saw an update on paNOW.com.

“I never got to that point. I just got the runaround, I didn’t get to that point where they said ‘there’s no vaccines,’” Morton said. “The only place where I got that was from you people [paNOW] and I really appreciate that, because you have it on your website.”

Morton feels he wasted a lot of time, both of the various government employees he talked to, and his own time.

“If they just had some sort of system where they could say, ‘oh, sure your name is Morris Morton, you want [the vaccine] and you’re over 70. We have you on a list and here, we’ve got your number and we’re working on your appointment,’ or something. But I’m wasting a lot of government time phoning all these people,” Morton said.

SHA looking to improve communication

During Tuesday’s COVID-19 press conference, SHA CEO Scott Livingstone said the government was looking at different ways of communicating to those eligible for the vaccine, like public service announcements (PSA’s), through media, and direct calls.

“Now going forward as we plan for expanded clinics, we’ll be using PSA’s when we get into the 70+ later in Phase 1. We are looking at multiple ways of having the ability to contact, whether that’s through social media, through newspapers, through radio advertisements, direct telephone calls to patients that are viewed as eligible to receive the vaccine,” he said.

Livingstone also said the SHA is working on an online scheduling system, which is expected to be geared more toward the mass vaccinations we’ll see in Phase 2, but it could be used in Phase 1.

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW