generalspeaking

H1N1 Preparedness

Canadians are led to believe several things, that our national health authorities, along with their provincial and municipal counterparts are right on track in decision-making and delivering the vaccines that are being touted as the only real way of forestalling a full-blown national pandemic - and that the vaccines themselves, although they have not been subjected to Canadian trials, will do the job of protecting vulnerable human beings from the worst, albeit rare, effects of this new flu virus.

Since the opening of municipal clinics established in Canadian cities to first serve those judged to be most likely to being exposed to the worst effects of H1N1: health-care workers, pregnant women, children under age six and people with immune-impairing illnesses, chaos has reigned supreme. Even within that discrete section of society it has become obvious that the clinics are too few in number, the vaccination process has been time-impaired by the paperwork associated with it, and people are being turned away.

Long, tedious waiting times, the result of sobering though rare news of previously-healthy young people in the prime of life suddenly losing life with the onslaught of H1N1 has caused no little amount of concern. Pregnant women, women with infants, the elderly health-impaired, and health-care workers are experiencing the frustration of mingling among hundreds of other anxious people awaiting vaccination. Half of them will be turned away, instructed to return at another time in the hopes they can then be served.

These crowded clinics, with people of every age and medical condition thronging the sites, restlessly trying to calm their fears and accompanying young children's need to be entertained and fed while waiting, also present as an excellent breeding ground for germs and viruses in and of themselves. The inoculation itself takes a mere second to perform. While the associated paperwork results in a time-waste of up to ten minutes, per individual. Both of which issues the nurse is charged with.

Not possible for waiting adults to fill in their own questionnaires adequately with instructions printed on the forms, and/or prompting from roving clerks placed there for that precise purpose? Expediting the inoculation process by removing the tedious need for the nurse to perform both functions? With the end result being far more rapid and thorough processing of each individual, and infinitely greater numbers of vaccinations could be performed.

It's disheartening and pitiful that people who haven't the physical capacity to extend themselves for prolonged periods of time, needing to line up, and then be informed after a six-hour wait that they will not make the cut, necessitating that they return for another attempt. Obviously, more clinics should be opened. Retired and currently-non-practising RNs should be recruited to expedite matters.

In view of the recent deaths of a pre-teen and a teen, both of whom were suddenly fatally struck, with no previous health impediments, it would seem reasonable for nurses to fan out into area schools to vaccinate school children in those premises. Authorization forms could be sent out in advance to be signed by consenting parents. A total recalibration of the manner in which the vaccination process is being done should be undertaken, quickly, to establish a best-practise regimen.

Ordinary vaccinations for yearly flu shots, extolled for their value in ensuring that the general population is as protected as possible, are available through clinics and through the offices of general practitioners. There seems no really good reason why that practise should not, in this obviously tense and emergency atmosphere, be replicated for the H1N1 virus. Nurses in the offices of general practitioners are adept at delivering vaccinations.

For it's abundantly clear that this is not what is now occurring. And it is also obvious that Health Canada, having accepted trial results that were undertaken elsewhere, rather than lose precious time in using the newly-developed vaccine, including the adjuvenated type as quickly as possible, harbours some concerns, which accounts for their perceived need to track and monitor the progress of all who are being vaccinated.

Labels: Canada, Health, Particularities/Peculiarities

posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, October 28, 2009