Burnaby seniors advocates are worried a Fraser Health decision to reinstate cancelled flu clinics at three local seniors centres this week is a political move that could jeopardize the clinics in the long term.
“The concern now is that, because they’re setting them up so late, a lot of seniors may already have gotten their shot, and then I’m afraid that they’ll just use it as an excuse to say, ‘See, we only got 25 people, and we’re not going to have [the clinics] any more.’ I’d hate to see that happen,” said Brenda Felker, a member of the local advocacy group Voices of Burnaby Seniors (VOBS).
Mary Horton, president of the Bonsor 55+ Society, said she would have preferred the health authority make a firm commitment to put on the clinics as usual next year instead of reinstating this year’s clinics so late in the game.
“I think it’s a shame that the whole thing has occurred,” she told the NOW, “and I’m concerned about the cost to Fraser Health of setting up these emergency clinics or whatever they’re calling them.”
Fraser Health reinstated the clinics this week after VOBS voiced concerns in a letter Nov. 6 and the NDP drew attention to the cuts in the Legislature last week.
The health authority said it had cancelled the clinics in order to focus resources on other at-risk groups, like people at homeless shelters and children under five, who can’t be served by pharmacies.
Health Minister Terry Lake said last week he had asked Fraser Health to review its decision and appeared to promise the health authority would reinstate the clinics.
In an email to the NOW last week, however, Lake said Fraser Health would only reconsider co-ordinating flu clinics at centres that did not have access to nearby pharmacy-run clinics, something that would have ruled out Burnaby’s four seniors centres.
That prompted Burnaby-Deer Lake MLA Kathy Corrigan to say Lake had used “weasel words” in the Legislature to deflect questions about the cancelled clinics.
But this week, Fraser Health announced that – after reaching out to more than 40 seniors centres across the health region – it was reinstating flu clinics at nine centres that still wanted them, including Bonsor, Cameron and Edmonds in Burnaby.
“This year, we heard from members of our seniors community that flu shot clinics in recreation centres are important for them,” said Fraser Health interim chief medical health officer Dr. Victoria Lee in an email statement. “With the support of the Minister, we reached out to those centres in which we held flu shot clinics last year to determine if there was still a need for them. For most, seniors had already received their vaccine from another vaccine provider, like a pharmacy or GP office. However, for several of these centres, there remained demand for the service, so we are supporting them.”
Lee added that Fraser Health would take the response to this year’s cancelled clinics into consideration for next year.
VOBS member Elsie Dean, meanwhile, said the controversy over the cancelled clinics could have been avoided if the health authority had done a better job consulting with seniors.
“We never get consulted about these things ahead of time,” she told the NOW. “I think what we have to do as seniors is we have to start to educate them about consulting with us.”
In the meantime, she said she hopes the clinics are well attended this year.
“I hope we get a good turnout so late,” she said, “so that it shows that it is effective and is worthwhile, so they’ll do it next year.”
