Dear nurses, paramedics, city staff and others who were staffing the Walter Baker H1N1 vaccination clinic yesterday:
Thank you.
I tried, as I was moving through the various stations and lines yesterday to say thank you personally to as many people as I encountered, but from what I’ve seen, each and every one of you should be applauded.
We had intended to show up around 1:15 pm to line up for the clinic that was scheduled to open at the Walter Baker Centre in Barrhaven at 2:30 pm, but I noticed on Twitter around 11:30 that someone said they had already received their numbered bracelet, so I hustled my 20-month-old and five-year-old sons out the door by a little after noon, making arrangements for my mother to pick up my seven-year-old from his school at 1:15 as I’d originally planned.
We waited in the first line up at Walter Baker to get our numbered bracelets for maybe 30 minutes, maybe a little bit longer. My only suggestion would be that you put someone near the end of that line to explain to newcomers what to do and what to expect. When I asked the person handing out the bracelets for one for my seven-year-old son, whom I understand is outside the priority age group but whom I really wanted to have vaccinated to save me a third and fourth trip to the vaccine clinics, he said no but when I asked to speak to a higher authority (politely, and stepping out of the line to do so, so that I wouldn’t keep others waiting unneccesarily) the public health nurse flagged us through before I even finished my request.
We were given our bracelets and told to return at 4:30 pm. I can’t tell you how impressed I am by your system and its relative efficiency, and how grateful I was to spend the waiting period with the baby napping in his own crib and both boys in school where they belonged, rather than trying to engage them for hours on the community centre floor. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
When we returned at exactly 4:30, they were already calling our numbers into the queue for registration. There was some confusion as to where we should stand and how we could obtain the necessary paperwork, but it was fairly easy to resolve. Despite the fact that they must have been exhausted from dealing with frustrated, stressed and not always pleasant people all day long, everyone who directed us was unfailingly pleasant and obviously trying to make the best of the situation.
We waited nearly an hour in the registration queue, a good portion of which was taken up by me completing all five forms. Once our paperwork was checked, we didn’t even have to queue in the secondary waiting area for our shots — we were brought directly to an available station.
The majority of the stations seemed to be staffed by paramedics when we were there, although we saw a public health nurse. She was pleasant and efficient, although even then it probably took her at least 15 minutes to work her way through all of our injections. While they were waiting, the big boys entertained each other by finding the children at other stations who were making the biggest fuss. When it was their turn, my seven-year-old didn’t even flinch, the five-year-old fought back tears, and the baby howled blue murder for about a minute. And we were done.
In all, we waited half an hour for our bracelets in the morning and were in and out of the clinic in 90 minutes in the afternoon. I know many, many people will complain about how poorly run things were, how inconvenient it was, and a litany of other complaints. In fact, one woman tried to get a bracelet when I was getting mine by jumping the queue, saying she was diabetic and needed one but needed to get back to work. She was told to wait in the queue, and she refused. We ended up riding the elevator down together, and she looked at me and shook her head and said, “Isn’t this ridiculous? What a mess!” I shrugged my shoulders and said, “Actually, I think they’re doing a pretty good job.” She looked at my kids, my stroller and the bag full of activities I’d packed expecting an all-day wait and said, “Well, some of us WORK for a living.” I grinned my least pleasant grin and told her that I too work for a living — I’d just prioritized this and planned ahead. She stalked away without another word.
All that to say, I have no doubt that you will hear numerous complaints, both legitimate and otherwise, about how the city of Ottawa is running its H1N1 vaccine clinics, but my family would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone who contributed to the clinic at Walter Baker Centre yesterday. You did a great job.
Sincerely,
DaniGirl
P.S. I have less than pleasant things to say about OC Transpo, but I’ll save those for another day…
I’m glad to hear a positive experience about this. I mean, a week ago these vaccines weren’t even available in Ottawa and I think we need to focus on how many people the city has successfully managed to vaccinate in such a short time. Of course there will be flaws, but with hundreds and hundreds of people lining up to get the vaccine at locations not really equipped to handle such crowds, I am really pleased to hear someone reaching out to say thank you.
Glad it went well – you’re motivating me to get my family out in the next couple days!
I noticed that the city now has the registration forms on their site so you can fill them in ahead of time! Handy! I found out that we are considered high priority due to our little guy and his health, so I’m going to attempt going today. Am I crazy?
http://www.ottawa.ca/residents/health/conditions/swine_influenza/h1n1_clinics_en.html
It seems things are run differently at each location (at least between KRC and Barrehaven). I wasn’t going to write about my experience, but maybe I will. If it helps someone not have to wait the hours that I did then it would be good. BTW I never blamed the staff, or got angry with anyone there. I found that most people were very pleasant even when faced with hours of sitting around. I made sure I was pleasant to every staff person I talked to and thanked them. It is the least I could do. I may have had a 7 hour wait (not all sitting there) but they were probably working 10-12 hours shifts (possibly longer) and deserve lots of kudos.
This is my post about the KRC experience: http://chantal-blogaholic.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-experience-with-flu-shot.html
Well… At least now I’ll have a reason to be optimistic when I drop by the Walter Baker place. Thanks for the story.
This is good to know. I am still figuring out how to work getting the vaccine. I appreciate hearing how it went for you.
I have been trying to find a clinic offering this and it was around the corner from my house YESTERDAY? Crap. You don’t happen to know if/when they are offering another?
Sounds like the kanata locations REALLY have their act together. I highly recommend going there instead of one of the downtown locations which (by all accounts) still don’t. I mean, they were nice and all, but efficient is not a word that could be applied…
I meant the Nepean locations. Erm. I am hearing good things about Kanata too though.
Michelle, there won’t be another clinic at Walter Baker until late November. My mom went over around 11:00 today and they were already full up. You can find a complete list of Ottawa clinics here: http://ottawa.ca/residents/health/conditions/swine_influenza/h1n1_clinics_en.html
you had an awesome flu vac experience and we had an awesome emergency room experience,lol. i think the h1n1 is making us nicer to each other;). shared panic can go both ways, i think, and i am glad to hear it went well for the both of us.
flu clinics open in cornwall tomorrow and everyone is quite anxious. it is just ridiculous how many people have been touched by the virus here. i know it is nowhere near as prevalent in toronto ( my sister is having mild anxiety over pediatricians recommending against the vaccination at this point) and the take on it is very different.
i hope you guys remain healthy:)). we have opted to keep holly out of school for a few more days, even with the vaccination, ensuring that she is as protected as she can be. with alex now having h1n1 ( still can not believe my “boy in the bubble” has it… when worst scenarios come true…that is this week in my life ), i feel i would be remiss sending her back to school as a risk. so she is in one part of the house, not allowed to interact with her brother and we are in the other. disinfecting as we go…
could it be may already, please?????
I’m just very interested to hear that in Ottawa you’re actually able to get the vaccine! I had mine yesterday because I have an autoimmune disease and take pretty heavy immunosuppressants – but even I wouldn’t have qualified except that I happened to be at my doctor’s office anyway and he offered it, knowing my medical issues. However, no one here (in BC) is supposed to be getting it except for (a) pregnant women past 20 weeks, and (b) the critically ill (i.e., those on chemotherapy or with HIV). I hate to think it’s just another case of you folks in Ontario getting preferential treatment over the rest of us, but…history kind of speaks for itself. Kind of depressing, to tell you the truth.
Question… does the whole family need to be there to get bracelets or can 1 parent go and get 5 bracelets. Why can’t they have these FAQs on the ottawa.ca site ??!!! Moms who help other moms rock. THanks to you all.
TA, it seems to change from place to place and even day to day. It’s really not clear what today’s policy is. Good luck to you!
I can now answer my own question so thought I would post again. I experienced disaster at Vanier clinic location in Ottawa today. I stood in the rain for two hours (1:00-3:00 pm) hoping for bracelets so I could go back tonight at the designated time with my three young kids. The clinic hours were posted as 2:30-8:00pm. However people started lining up at 7:00 am. They gave out 500 bracelets starting at 2:00 pm. (they were for various time slots for this evening) . People were allowed bracelets for members of their immediate family that are on the priority list. I would have taken 4 (three for my kids and one for asthmatic self). So you can see that the first 200 people in line took the 500 bracelets. This mathematical exercise could have been concluded by 9:00 or 10:00 am. There were hundreds of parents, babies, small children all outside in the cold rain. There is almost no parking at this location and the neighbourhood streets are a mess with no parking signs everywhere.
We were officially asked/encouraged to let friends know how the process works! (Or doesn’t work in this case) Why not simply update the Ottawa.ca and the Twitter feed! Another useful tip..they are not accepting the online consent form for some reason so pick up the copy if ever you are lucky enough to get a bracelet. It seems that now that I have actually decided I want the shot for my family that it will be very hard to get it !
First of all, I’m happy to hear that your experience was a good one. Ours was a good one too.
It was a long process to decide if we should receive vaccines. We were concerned that our 20 month old would have a reaction to the vaccine. As an adult with asthma and health care worker, I didn’t want hang out in close quarters with possibly ill people. After hearing that there had been no adverse effects from the vaccine on children and that people in our circles were getting pretty ill, we decided to do it.
I think I will use part of this to send to the city. We didn’t receive our vaccines from Ottawa Public Health. We got ours at Riverside Hospital. My mom-in-law works there and after vaccinating the employees, they offered it to their families.
Including paperwork and sitting for 15 minutes post vaccine, it took us 30 min. They had huge amounts of volunteers to get you from forms, to intake, to the nurses and waiting areas.
I’m sure they vaccinated huge amounts of people this way. Maybe ottawa public health should call out for volunteers to help get the vaccine to people who need it now. From a personal viewpoint the people who seem to be getting it are school age children. I think they should be priority soon.
Here’s hoping that little people don’t need the 2nd shot.
Thank you!