During the height of the H1N1 vaccination shortage, wait times at the Foothills Centennial Arena in Okotoks were stretching to three hours.

At the peak, Melissa Pryor, coordinator of volunteers for the clinics, sent out e-mails at 9 a.m. desperately requesting more volunteers by noon of the same day. Pryor said people always responded and the clinics were never once short of staff.

Emmie Jenkins, Jim McKay and Cherie McKay all volunteered at the last H1N1 clinic at the Foothills Centennial Arena Dec. 16. Fifteen volunteers helped out during the clinics.

“Our volunteers are amazing and they made my life so much easier,” said Pryor.

During the clinic’s first three days 6,000 people from the surrounding area, including Calgary, were vaccinated in Okotoks. Pryor said she had a volunteer staff of 15 people working from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. or later in the clinic’s initial days.

Pryor said she is unsure whether the clinics would have been possible without the volunteers.

“I shouldn’t say no because we would’ve been able to pull it off, but we would have had to redeploy a lot more staff,” said Pryor.

Staff at the Okotoks Health and Wellness Centre would have been pulled away from their regular duties, she said, had volunteers not pitched in.

Clinics were held Mondays through Wednesdays starting in late October.

Jim and Cherie McKay are retirees who moved to Okotoks three years ago. The couple said they came down to help at the clinics to meet people and give back to the community.

“The first three days were really bad for lineups but we just tried to keep it light and help everybody with the paperwork,” said Jim.

Volunteers like the McKays did everything from filling out paperwork, moving boxes, answering questions to directing traffic.

The McKays volunteered at all but three clinics. Both said they would gladly do it all over again.

“In a heartbeat, in a heartbeat I’d do it again,” said Cherie.

Despite patients waiting in line for as much as three hours before receiving their shot, some found the experience so pleasant they asked about volunteering.

“As coordinator of volunteer resources that speaks volumes to me,” said Pryor.

In talking to the volunteers Pryor found they worked the long hours as a way of giving back to the community.

“I think it’s the community engagement and knowing they are making a difference,” said Pryor.

The H1N1 vaccine is now available at physician’s offices and some local pharmacies. Bob Brown, pharmacist and owner of Shoppers Drug Mart in Okotoks, said his staff will be administering the vaccine by appointment because it has to be pre-mixed and is only good for 24 hours.

“Because of how we are going to try to manage this opportunity we are looking to have individuals book appointments,” said Brown.

The final flu clinic was held at the Foothills Centennial Centre on Dec. 16. Shoppers Drug Mart will conduct their first clinics Dec. 21 and 22 from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. Appointments will last approximately 15 minutes allowing time for paperwork.

Seasonal flu and H1N1 vaccines are available at no cost to Alberta residents.

Brown said he expects to have the vaccine as long as it’s made available by Alberta Health Services. In the future the vaccine will be available at public health clinics and some workplace clinics.

While more than one million Albertans have been vaccinated in just six weeks, public health officials estimate 60 per cent of the population is still at risk of contracting the virus.

As of Dec. 15, there have been 159 cases of H1N1 in southern Alberta and 64 H1N1-related deaths in the province.

rnorthrop@okotoks.greatwest.ca

0 Click Here to 'Like' this post

 Email This Post  Print This Post