Family physicians helping patients stick it to COVID
Family practice vaccine clinics are helping get COVID-19 vaccines into arms that might otherwise have been missed.
“We knew there would be significant challenges regarding hesitancy,” said Dr. Farhan Khan, family physician at Lakeside Medical Clinic. “As family physicians, we were presented with these concerns right from the start. The role of trust and personal connections that family physicians have with their patients cannot be exaggerated for concerns of this nature.”
“This is a tumultuous time, and we knew if people had the opportunity to receive a COVID-19 vaccine from somebody they had a relationship with and trusted, in a setting that they were already comfortable with, it would increase our vaccine uptake,” said Dr. Allison Adamus, family physician at Martensville Collective Health and Wellness. “There are some challenges in running the clinics, but we are also getting fantastic feedback from patients that they appreciate the opportunity to get their vaccine in exactly that setting.”
Dr. Adamus and Dr. Khan are leading the rollout of COVID-19 vaccine clinics at family physician practices, and oversee the process. The clinics normally run on weekends, with two to four clinics each weekend, for anywhere from about 300 to 800 immunizations. As of June 24, nearly 5,000 patients have been immunized at family practice clinics in Saskatoon.
“Family physicians have a lot of experience giving immunizations because we always participate in the flu immunizations, and my clinic participates in childhood immunizations as well,” said Dr. Shanna Fenton, physician at City Centre Family Physicians. “We heard from a lot of our patients that they were most comfortable getting the vaccine from us, and we also heard from a subset that they wouldn’t get the vaccine if they couldn’t get it from us, for various reasons – they were hesitant about the vaccine, they were worried about going to a facility they didn’t know, or they had attended the flu immunizations in the past and they wanted to come to a place where they knew what to expect.”
Not only was it comforting for the patients, it also gave the physicians and clinic staff a morale boost, noted Fenton.
“It was professionally very satisfying to give the vaccine to these people that we’ve known for years, and participate in the emotional experience of the immunizations,” she said. “It felt like we were injecting hope. After talking patients through the anxiety of the pandemic and COVID exposures for a year and a half, it finally feels like something positive we can do to help people through this pandemic.”
Family practices are promoting the vaccine clinics to their patients, following the eligibility criteria that applies to all COVID-19 vaccine administration in Saskatchewan.
Erna Hannah and her husband Bill came to City Centre Family Physicians for their second dose, and they reached out to the staff afterwards to share their positive feedback.
“I have never seen anything so well run. They looked like they’d been doing it all of their lives,” said Hannah. “That’s why I wrote the letter – we don’t always go out of our way to say thank you.”
“We had a couple of questions, and Dr. McMahon took the time to talk to us,” she said. “I felt like a weight had been lifted off our shoulders. We’re both over 70 and you don’t think it’s causing stress, but everything in life is affected by COVID. Going to our family doctor clinic was the best option for us. We were comfortable with it, you know it’s clean and you know how to get there.”
