Workers jumped COVID-19 vaccine booking queue accidentally: Interior Health

KELOWNA (NEWS 1130) – At least eight health-care workers in B.C.’s Interior Health region tried to get a COVID-19 vaccine dose before their turn.

Some employees booked a vaccination appointment using a link to a scheduling portal they should not have had access to, according to a document obtained by NEWS 1130 via a freedom of information request.

The link was “circulated by some staff who were intended to receive immunization to other staff who were not to be included in that phase of immunization,” the document says.

Interior Health says it wasn’t able to determine how many people booked an appointment this way, but it was more than four.

At least eight Interior Health Authority employees tried to get a COVID-19 vaccine before their turn, according to a document obtained via FOI. #bcpoli #CovidVaccine pic.twitter.com/j4a5YYZ8uG

— kelvin gawley (@byGawley) March 22, 2021

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Two staff members who do not work on the front lines also booked an appointment before their turn and one person showed up at a clinic to get a second dose before waiting the mandated 42 days after their first shot, according to the health authority.

Bookings made ‘due to confusion or human error’

An Interior Health spokesperson said the “extremely small number of people” who booked an appointment early did so “due to confusion or human error” and were not disciplined.

All of the premature bookings were caught before the individuals got a shot and were cancelled or rescheduled, the spokesperson said in an email.

The Health Sciences Association of B.C., which represents more than 20,000 health-care workers, is not aware of any of its members jumping the vaccine queue, according to its director of strategic initiatives, David Bieber.

“We’re not terribly surprised by this as our members are highly disciplined and dedicated to the health care system, and they understand both the science of vaccines and the government’s current rollout of doses,” he said in an email. “Overall, we feel the vaccine rollout is working well, and we’ve found the government responsive where we’ve had the need for more information.”

In an email, Courtney McGillion, B.C. Nurses’ Union coordinator of communications and campaigns, said the union could not comment on the “status of employees of Interior Health.”

“It is my understanding that most nurses are receiving the vaccine as per the provincial rollout strategy,” she added.

Mike Old, secretary business manager for the Hospital Employees’ Union, also said he was unaware of any members jumping the vaccine queue.

Early on in the vaccine rollout, there were some issues in ensuring workers employed by contractors got vaccinated, “but we’ve ironed out those difficulties,” Old said.

“We’re pretty pleased with the vaccine rollout for health-care workers so far,” he said.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC is “not aware of any of its registrants jumping the vaccine queue in any health authority,” according to spokesperson Susan Prins.

Queue-jumping doctors caught in Vancouver

In response to similar freedom of information requests, the Fraser and Vancouver Island health authorities said they had no records of employees trying to get vaccinated before their turn. The Northern and Vancouver Coastal authorities have yet to respond to the requests.

In January, Health Minister Adrian Dix said he was disappointed when it was revealed doctors in Vancouver were caught jumping the queue to get a second dose.

“There are cases that have been determined by Vancouver Coastal Health and we’ll be taking the appropriate action,” he said at the time. “Obviously, to the extent that it’s a human resources question, that won’t be happening publicly, but we’re reviewing it right now.”

Rumours that Provincial Health Services Authority executives had jumped the vaccine queue appear to have spread among the agency’s staff, but they have been denied repeatedly.