Did some Hamilton hospital staff jump the vaccine line?

Hamilton's hospitals are not saying how many of their staff got the COVID-19 vaccine ahead of schedule.

Workers in the COVID units, emergency department and intensive-care units at highest risk of getting the virus were supposed to be first in line at Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) and St. Joseph's Healthcare.

However, staff evaluated for themselves which priority group they fell into.

HHS and St. Joseph's both say the majority" of staff registered with the right group. But neither has said exactly how many put themselves at a higher priority and wrongly got vaccinated or what jobs they do.

The provincial system does not track these," HHS said in a statement without explaining how it knows the majority were in the right group.

It's significant because questions are being raised about Ontario's vaccine rollout as national shortages of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 are occurring before the province has immunized all residents, staff and essential caregivers of long-term care (LTC) and high-risk retirement homes, which were supposed to be the priority.

I want to be clear we're using every single vaccine we can to protect the most vulnerable," Premier Doug Ford said Monday while vowing vaccinations in LTC and high-risk retirement homes will be done by Feb. 5.

Hamilton's medical officer of health, Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, couldn't say Monday how many are left to vaccinate here.

That challenge we have is knowing what we'll call the denominator information - so knowing exactly the number of people who are in long-term care and retirement homes, exactly the number of staff, exactly the number of essential caregivers," she said. We have a good ballpark that we're doing well in terms of those vaccinations. The challenge is to get really specific with numbers."

Richardson can't provide an overall number of how many people in Hamilton have been vaccinated so far. The last count was 13,400 provided Jan. 18. It's not clear why the city doesn't have updated information.

The only recent data is from the mobile clinics going into seniors' homes, which have administered 4,697 doses as of Jan. 21. Most went to residents but it's unknown how many went to staff and essential caregivers.

Overall there is no count of how many from each group have been vaccinated in Hamilton. Richardson blamed the province, saying its system was built on the fly" and doesn't allow for that type of breakdown.

We absolutely know who we have vaccinated," Richardson said in terms of names. The system needs to be improved to track whether it was a staff person or a resident."

Hamilton is now only giving first doses to staff, residents and essential caregivers of seniors' homes who were ill when the mobile unit visited or were missed in some other way. They will also give first doses to LTC residents who are in hospital.

All other vaccinations are paused so Hamilton can make sure it has enough second doses for those who have already been immunized.

Richardson says residents of LTC homes and high-risk retirement homes will receive their second Pfizer dose within the recommended 21 days. But all others may wait as long as 42 days. Those who received the Modena vaccine will get the second dose within the recommended 28 days.

Richardson says so far uptake of the vaccine has been good in seniors' homes.

We know we're getting near 100 per cent vaccinated," she said.

Hamilton's hospitals have said 6,500 of their workforce has been vaccinated so far, which is nearly 30 per cent. But neither St. Joseph's nor HHS could provide any kind of breakdown of where those staff work.

HHS is applying the process established by the provincial government to ensure fair, ethical and equitable access to the vaccine for all hospital health-care workers," said HHS.

Both HHS and St. Joseph's used the same process for staff to self-identify in which sequence group they belong."

In addition to the ER, ICU and COVID units, staff at the Satellite Health Facility were also in the highest priority group at the direction of Richardson.

The temporary facility at 150 King St. E. in Effort Square cares for those ready to be discharged - many are vulnerable seniors waiting for LTC. It currently has outbreaks on three floors.

HHS and St. Joseph's could only say that some" of the staff there had been vaccinated but couldn't provide even a rough idea of how many.

The Ontario Health Coalition says the lack of data is a problem provincewide.

Bottom line, the majority of vaccines that have been given are not in LTC despite repeated claims by the provincial government that LTC is the priority," said executive director Natalie Mehra. While we of course support front-line health-care staff who are being exposed to COVID-19 to be vaccinated ... 61 per cent of Ontario's deaths are in LTC, and getting the entire sector vaccinated would help to reduce the risk for these most vulnerable people."

Joanna Frketich is a Hamilton-based reporter covering health for The Spectator. Reach her via email: jfrketich@thespec.com