Yukoners wait hours for flu shots, some turned away due to high demand

Hundreds more people got their flu shot so far this year in Yukon compared to this time last year, according to the territory's top doctor, and that higher demand has resulted in some people waiting hours for a shot or being turned away.

"It's that delicate game of trying to allocate staffing resources to anticipate a demand, and sometimes the guess is off," Dr. Brendan Hanley, Yukon's chief medical officer of health, said on Tuesday.

Last Friday, the flu shot clinic at the Canada Games Centre in Whitehorse was apparently so busy, several people were turned away after it closed more than 30 minutes earlier than scheduled.

"The staff are really trying to do their best, you know, forgoing breaks and working through to accommodate everyone that's there," Hanley said.

"Nobody feels good about turning people away."

As of Monday, about 7,550 people got the shot so far this year compared to 6,900 by the same time last year, he said.

So far this year, the Whitehorse Health Centre alone has given out the same amount compared to the entire territory by this point last year.

Hanley didn't have an answer for why, exactly, there's a higher demand this year, but he said an increase in population, promotional efforts, and the typical increased interest in the vaccine when there's an earlier flu season may have contributed.

"We actually saw flu activity quite early in Yukon. It arrived in September," he said.

Yukon has had about 15 confirmed cases so far this flu season, including influenza A and influenza H3.

"The intensity that we're seeing is kind of just fairly low but steady, rather than intense," Hanley said.

However, "it's always unpredictable" if that pattern will continue.

Hanley said confirmed cases of influenza are one measure for determining the amount of flu activity in the territory; overall activity in the emergency room is also taken into account.

'Lots of vaccine left'

This year's flu shot protects against two strains of influenza A and two strains of influenza B, he said.

"There's still lots of vaccine left," Hanley said.

The territorial government ordered 12,500 doses this year. Last year, about 10,000 to 11,000 people got a flu shot in Yukon.

About 23 to 25 per cent of the territory's population gets the flu shot each year, and that, along with some buffer room, went into the logic behind placing that order.

It's best to get a flu shot early, but people are still encouraged to get the flu shot even in the spring, Hanley said.

Pharmacists are allowed to administer flu shots, but the operational measures are still under development, he said. They should be able to give people the shot by next flu season.

"That should, in itself, take a considerable burden off the public health delivery," Hanley said.