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People booking multiple COVID-19 vaccine appointments causing no-shows

"Some people make an appointment and then even that same day of their appointment, they'll go to the drive-thru, so we get a cancellation the day of."

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Booking multiple vaccine appointments and going to the earliest one available may mean some people get their first dose a day or two earlier, but pharmacists say people forgetting to cancel their other appointments is putting extra stress on the system.

Chris Perentes, owner and manager of Lorne Drugs in Regina, said around 10 per cent of his vaccine bookings every week end up getting cancelled because the person has already received their first shot somewhere else.

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“Some people make an appointment and then even that same day of their appointment, they’ll go to the drive-thru, so we get a cancellation the day of,” he said.

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“Last minute we’re filling in appointments, but we do have a good waiting list and we manage to do that quite well.”

The pharmacy also tries to be proactive, checking the immunization records for each patient around 24 hours ahead of their appointment to see if they’ve already received a first dose, Perentes said. If they have, their appointment is cancelled and the slot is filled with someone from the waitlist.

“It’s just a time issue for us. We can do it. We have a wait list that we can fill pretty quick, but it’s just a little inconvenience,” he said.

Derek Gatz, a pharmacist at Werezak’s Pharmacy in Saskatoon, said around two people each day are not showing up to their vaccine appointments. He believes the vast majority of these are because the patients received their first dose elsewhere.

This just creates more work for pharmacy staff, Gatz said, adding staff are already feeling stretched thin as they vaccinate people while still carrying out all their regular duties.

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“Changing appointments and whatnot to get a day earlier, two days earlier, I think that creates a lot of strain on the system,” Gatz said.

“Every extra phone call you have to make and people not showing up, it can take away from the other duties we have.”

He discouraged people from appointment shopping and instead encouraged people to stick with their original appointments whenever possible.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) also asks anyone who booked at one of its mass vaccination clinics and then gets in sooner somewhere else to cancel any later appointments as soon as possible.

“We would absolutely ask them to immediately cancel their booked appointment so that space is freed up for another person,” the SHA said in an emailed statement. “We all need to work together to help everyone access the vaccine as quickly as possible.”

If anyone has trouble cancelling their appointment through the province’s booking website, the SHA said they should call the SaskVax phone line at 1-833-727-5829.

So far neither Perentes nor Gatz have had doses go to waste at the end of the day, with people on waitlists coming in last minute to get their shot.

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As more and more people become vaccinated and waitlists shorten, however, Gatz worries this may not be the case for much longer. He hopes people will become more consistent with their appointments to avoid potentially wasting any doses because of last-minute changes.

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lgiesbrecht@postmedia.com

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