Manitoba doctors seek bigger role in vaccination effort

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/03/2021 (1816 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba physicians want a larger role in the COVID-19 immunization campaign and are pressing the province to provide them with mRNA vaccines, such as Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, to give to patients at their clinics.

Doctors Manitoba, which represents more than 3,000 physicians, has sent a report with seven recommendations to the province’s vaccine task force.

The recommendations were made after the province provided 18,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Covishield vaccine to fewer than 200 clinics and pharmacists on March 10 as part of a pilot project.

“Overall, we heard positive feedback about the provincial registration process, delivery of vaccines and supplies, and the use of physicians to target scarce vaccine resources to those most at risk,” Doctors Manitoba said in a statement on its website.

“We also identified opportunities to improve the rollout, better support Manitobans, and address vaccine hesitancy.”

The association said nearly all physicians it surveyed want to offer either Pfizer or Moderna shots in their clinics.

The mRNA vaccines have strict transportation and storage requirements, issued by the manufacturers, that have so far restricted their use in Manitoba to provincial authorities (at mass immunization and pop-up clinics, or mobile immunization teams) or by First Nations partners.

However in other provinces, including British Columbia and Alberta, the Pfizer vaccine is available to people at select medical clinics and at pharmacies.

“Manitoba physicians identified several issues that can all be addressed through collaborative planning, lead time to organize vaccine clinics, storage requirements, and a protocol to avoid vaccine wastage,” the report stated. “While there are challenges, it has been done in many jurisdictions.”

On Wednesday, the provincial medical lead for the COVID-19 vaccine task force said physicians and pharmacists in Manitoba will need special training before being able to deliver mRNA vaccines, in addition to having a high-volume clinic and established transportation and storage protocols, to ensure the vaccines are effective when administered.

“All of these challenges can be addressed, but we want to do it in a way that is going to be efficient,” Dr. Joss Reimer said Wednesday. “Rather than asking 500 pharmacies and physicians to go through training, we wanted to start them off with something that they’re already familiar with.

“But we are still exploring other options, and for the larger clinics and larger pharmacies, we think that it could be something that we could move to as we get more vaccine,” Reimer said.

The organization wants medical clinics to provide pop-up COVID-19 immunization clinics in rural and remote communities and noted the capacity of physicians to deliver doses exceeds the province’s estimated 5,000 shots per day.

“We found 60 per cent of medical clinics have capacity to offer more. On average, clinics can offer 30 to 51 doses per day,” the report said. “This is 1.5 to 2.5 times more than provincial planning.”

The association also called for the province to bring its eligibility criteria for immunizations at medical clinics in line with supersites, and to enhance its communication, notice and updates to physicians.

“While many understood the province has faced uncertain and tight timelines about vaccine shipments, physicians were still very concerned about the ‘short notice’ and ‘last-minute’ communications,” the report stated.

Just 49 per cent of clinicians surveyed said they were satisfied with the information and support received from the province, the report said.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca