Some seniors left out of COVID vaccine distribution at Regina care home

While the rest of the residents at the Qu’Appelle House Special Care Home in Regina got their COVID-19 shots on Monday, those in assisted living suites at the residence had to wait.

The residents of the home had originally been told that everyone would be able to get the vaccine, but when nurses arrived on Monday morning, things changed and only staff at the home and those in care would get shots.

Janet Craig said she got a message in the morning telling her what happened. She tried to call and advocate for her 98-year-old mother who’s at the home but is one of 15 people in their own assisted living suites.

Craig’s mother didn’t end up getting a vaccine and Craig is angry about it.

“Do I want her to get sick because she didn’t get the vaccine? We don’t know what the vaccine will be (and) we don’t know whether or not it’s going to be 100 per cent effective, but it’s better than nothing,” said Craig.

Craig’s mother, Jeanne Tweten, was isolating in her room and said she spent a long time waiting and didn’t know she wouldn’t be vaccinated until her daughter called her.

Tweten said they all follow the same restrictions in the home — whether in care or in assisted living — and they’re like a big family.

“I know you have to treat everybody alike because otherwise it’s like, ‘Why does he have a better piece of cake than I have?’ And that’s pretty well what’s going around right now, that some people are getting better pieces of cake than the rest of us,” said Tweten.

Craig explained that all the residents use the same common areas — like elevators and the dining room — so she didn’t understand why they would be treated differently.

Wendell Lindstrom also lives in a suite and didn’t get a shot. He said it was so disappointing for him because he has health problems.

“I’ve had two open-heart surgeries and my lungs are congested and so on, so I’m in real need of vaccine. And if I don’t get it and I get COVID, I think the outlook isn’t very good for me,” said Lindstrom.

Bev Desautels is the administrator at the home. She said she sent the final numbers for vaccines in on Friday — those in care, those in the suites and her staff. Then Monday when the public health nurses arrived, they told her there was a Ministry of Health directive advising them against vaccinating those in the independent suites.

Desautels said the vaccinations went smoothly and were done by about 1:30 p.m., but there were six doses left over, so the nurses told her to pick six from the 15 in assisted living to get shots. Desautels said she wasn’t going to choose so they picked names out of a basket.

Harold Olson was one of those six.

“To me, when we’ve got to have a lottery to do stuff like this, I don’t think that’s right,” said Olson.

Olson said he thinks leaving out some of the residents of the home was a huge mistake. He wants the nurses to come back right away and give vaccines to the other nine people so they can get their second doses when everyone else does.

The nine who didn’t get vaccinated now don’t know when they’ll be able to get a shot.

Several people have made a point of saying what happened wasn’t the fault of employees at Qu’Appelle House, that they did what they could.

The Saskatchewan NDP made the situation public Tuesday. Leader Ryan Meili said all through the pandemic we’ve seen a failure to plan and communicate from the provincial government.

“Frontline workers are doing everything they can, they’re scrambling to get this done but they’re being put in situations that are impossible for them (and) for the residents because of the lack of planning, the lack of foresight, and lack of communication from this government,” said Meili.

Meili said that the province needs a consistent, coherent plan laid out by Premier Scott Moe and that not having one leaves us with chaos.

“No one is getting a clear sense of where they are in the line or when they’ll actually receive the vaccine,” said Meili.

Saskatchewan Health Authority CEO Scott Livingstone said Tuesday the vaccine program is focusing on priority groups right now — people and employees in care homes.

He said those in assisted living, while they’re usually in the first phase of the plan,aren’t included in priority groups and that’s why those people weren’t included in the vaccinations at Qu’Appelle House.

Livingstone said he recognizes that everyone is anxious to get the vaccine.

“Our teams are doing what they can to get vaccine into the arms of the most vulnerable as quickly as possible,” he said.

He said the health authority will be reviewing what happened at this home and others.

Qu’Appelle House has only had one COVID-19 case — in an employee in December — and officials were able to stop it from spreading.