Ottawa seeing 300-400 vaccine appointment no-shows a day at community clinics

Ottawa ramps up vaccine efforts With more vaccines arriving, the city is opening new clinics but will that be enough to meet demand? CTV’s Christina Succi reports

OTTAWA — The head of Ottawa's COVID-19 vaccine rollout insists no doses are going to waste, despite hundreds of no-shows each day for an appointment at a community clinic.

Emergency and protective services general manager Anthony Di Monte says the city is seeing 300 to 400 no-shows daily at community clinics.

"Community clinics currently offer between 10,000 to 12,000 vaccine appointments per day. Of these planned appointments, anywhere from 300 to 400 no-shows may occur across all community clinics combined," said Di Monte in a statement to CTV News Ottawa.

"Any unclaimed doses are used in accordance with the Province of Ontario’s plan and ethical framework for vaccine distribution. This ensures that all unclaimed doses are reallocated and administered."

Speaking with reporters on Friday, Di Monte said the numbers of no-shows for appointments is not significant, but "it does seem to be increasing."

"We are keeping a very close eye on it. I want to reassure you, there's no loss."

Di Monte says Ottawa Public Health and the city have a list of priority groups, including priority healthcare groups that will receive any unused vaccines at the end of the day.

He added that staff will only prepare vaccines at clinics to meet the daily needs.

"The clinical staff and the staff that are in the clinics only thaw out and prepare vaccines a little bit a head of time," said Di Monte.

"If there are a hundred no-shows in a clinic at the end of the day, those 100 vaccines aren't lost because they aren't thawed out and they're not prepared or diluted, and they'll be ready for the next day."

Di Monte says Ontario has recently launched a tool to help residents reschedule or cancel their vaccination appointments. You can visit, https://vaccine.covaxonbooking.ca/manage.

In late May, the Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington Public Health unit reported a "high number of no-shows" at clinics.   There were over 25 no-shows at clinics in Kingston and Napanee on May 30.