B.C.'s family doctors want COVID-19 vaccine doses to offer in-person patients
Now that she’s seeing patients in person again at her family practice in Vancouver, Dr. Anna Wolak always asks them if they’re vaccinated. If the patient says no, she tries to address their hesitancy, and has had success in getting some of them to change their minds.
But she can only tell them where and how to get their shots, she can’t offer them a COVID-19 vaccine on the spot.
“My worry is somewhere along the way, they will see something on social media or talk to a friend, and all the work I had put into the convincing could fall by the wayside,” said Wolak.
She would like family physicians to have vaccine on hand to offer to patients who are finally ready to roll up their sleeves in the exam room, something family doctors can already do with the flu shot.
“We have a patient coming in for something completely different and say, ‘Hey, have you gotten your flu shot?’ And if they haven’t and we have a quick conversation, it’s right there, it’s like meters away,” said Wolak.
Right now, four hospitals in the Vancouver Coastal Health region have vaccine doses in emergency room fridges. This past week, Dr. Nav Grewal jabbed a patient in the ER for the very first time.
“It was great,” said Grewal. “I was able to take someone who had some vaccine hesitancy, answer their questions while they were there for a non-COVID-related issue, and was able to vaccinate them right there and then.”
She’d like to see that same easy access for family doctors.
“We are down to the last five to 10 per cent of people that are going to get vaccinated. This would be the prime time to get these (vaccines) into family physician offices and other primary care offices,” Grewal said.
Wolak said it’s especially important as B.C. prepares to launch a vaccine campaign for children ages five to 11.
“When they’re with the doctor they have known all their lives and they’ve trusted, it would be easier and less painful for them to get it in my office than, say, in the thousand-people convention centre,” said Wolak.
If the province does offer vaccine doses to family doctors offices?
“Sign me up,” she said. “I’m waiting for my flu shot delivery, so we can give the COVID shot at the same time as the flu shot as well. It would be so much easier.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
"It's a bit of a complicated pattern; we've got a lot going on," said Jennifer Smith of the Meteorological Service of Canada in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Wednesday. "[As is] typical with weather, all of these things are related."
Boeing's financial woes continue, while families of crash victims urge U.S. to prosecute the company
Boeing said Wednesday that it lost US$355 million on falling revenue in the first quarter, another sign of the crisis gripping the aircraft manufacturer as it faces increasing scrutiny over the safety of its planes and accusations of shoddy work from a growing number of whistleblowers.
Police tangle with students in Texas and California as wave of campus protest against Gaza war grows
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.