Health region could run out of flu vaccine; no guarantee with flu shot appointments

Karen Grauer of the Saskatoon Health Region shares information about flu shots and a vaccination clinic planned for Saturday.

Saskatoon residents who booked flu shots with a physician may not be guaranteed their shot after Saturday, the city’s health region said.

“We are wanting to notify those individuals who booked an appointment that we may not have vaccine available for them next week,” said Karen Grauer, the Saskatoon Health Region’s manager of population and public health.

The region has set aside 1,500 vaccine doses for a flu clinic Saturday at Saskatoon City Hospital and has enough vaccine available to administer flu shots Thursday and Friday to patients with scheduled physician appointments.

“Every year there is only so much vaccine that is manufactured to meet demand, and because this year is a bit unique in that the demand was a bit greater than we had anticipated, the ministry is looking to try and obtain more vaccine than what they have currently in their stores,” Grauer said.

The province’s health ministry advised the region to distribute the vaccine on a day-by-day demand. Grauer said that means the Saskatoon Health Region could use up all its current supply of vaccine at the Saturday clinic.

The most flu shots the region has ever distributed in one day is 3,800, Grauer said.

Saturday’s clinic was originally scheduled to run between 12:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. at West Winds Primary Health Centre but was moved to City Hospital and extended from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. to accommodate growing demand.

Grauer said the health region will speak with the provincial ministry on Monday to discuss vaccine supply.

“The ministry right now is working at securing more supplies, but until they advise us, we are going on the assumption that what we’ve got is the vaccination we have,” she said.

The ministry wrote in a statement to CTV that vaccine is no longer being produced for the season.

“However, there is some vaccine available,” the statement read. “We continue to closely monitor our vaccine supply, and are taking all possible steps to acquire influenza vaccine. We are also continuing to work with the Public Health Agency of Canada and our partners in other jurisdictions to secure additional vaccine supplies.”

Six people in the province have so far died from the H1N1 influenza this season.

The Saskatoon Health Region has seen 116 cases of the flu and 33 hospitalizations because of influenza so far.