A major health care provider in northern California who had to cancel 40,000 consultations for the second injection of the COVID-19 vaccine will receive another batch of doses from the state next week to reduce the shortage, a spokesman said on Thursday.
The announcement came a day after tens of thousands of Sutter Health patients were crushed to learn that their final injection would have to wait.
Angeline Sheets, director of media relations at Sutter Health, said the state had committed to sending the provider 30,000 doses next week and promised another 30,000 doses the following week. In the meantime, some counties and public health providers have shared their doses with Sutter to allow patients to receive their second injections.
Although Sutter still needs more doses for 90,000 appointments scheduled for the second dose, “it is a step in the right direction,” Sheets said in a telephone interview.
Sutter patients who accessed the Internet to check the status of their scheduled appointments they said they discovered the cancellations on Wednesday. Some tried furiously and to no avail to find another provider.
Affected patients live in 22 counties, including the bay area. Sutter Health, a nonprofit healthcare system based in Sacramento, operates approximately 24 acute care hospitals and more than 200 clinics in northern California. The provider serves more than 3 million Californians.
Sutter said on Wednesday that he may have to rule out another 50,000 consultations for patients scheduled to receive a second injection after announcing 40,000 cancellations.
“The state was very clear in guiding us that we should NOT withhold any doses for the second doses, and we followed these instructions as we quickly raised the mass vaccination sites and received the first doses in arms,” said Sutter spokeswoman Amy Thoma Tan in an email.
“We had been reassured for weeks that if we administered the first dose, the state would guarantee that we would receive the second dose, and we have not yet received it.”
Sheets said that all appointments for the first doses until March 9 also had to be canceled.
“As a result of ongoing allocation problems, we are in the process of notifying patients with second dose appointments scheduled by March 9 to let them know that their current appointment needs to be canceled due to insufficient supplies,” she said.
Patients will be called in seven to 10 days to reschedule, ”said Sheets.
Patricia Henle, 66, a lawyer who lives in Marin County, said she learned after accessing the Internet on Wednesday that consultations for the second injection of the Pfizer vaccine were canceled for her and her 74-year-old husband who suffers. of cancer and diabetes. They were scheduled to receive their second dose in Sacramento on Saturday.
She said the couple had not received any e-mails from Sutter and called the Sutter vaccine website in Sacramento to confirm that their appointments had been canceled. She said she was told it could take several weeks to get Sutter’s second injection and that she should check with other providers.
She then spent six hours unsuccessfully calling pharmacies and medical groups. One had only the Modern vaccine. Two providers said she could only schedule appointments for the first doses of the Pfizer vaccine, she said.
“If I had told them it would be my first chance, they would have taken me, but I didn’t want to lie,” she said. “I’m a lawyer.” She said that the first and second doses of Pfizer are the same and that she could have received the second dose if she had not told the truth.
“It is incomprehensible that I have to do this,” said Henle. “I’m trying my best to do this with honor and honesty, and I feel like an idiot for doing that, if you want to know the truth.”
Sutter said he received more than 350,000 doses of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines from state and municipal allocations. During the past three to four weeks, doses from the state have been insufficient or have not arrived, according to Sutter.
“We have urgently requested additional allocations from the state, and we have done so by e-mail and telephone,” said Sheets. “We have been incredibly clear about our need.”
She said suppliers in Alameda, Santa Cruz, San Francisco and Sacramento counties were among those who agreed to supply Sutter with the doses. “I want to say how grateful we are for your willingness to share your supply,” said Sheets.
She said the scarcity evolved before Blue Shield of California took control of the vaccine’s distribution in the state. The insurance giant has a contract with the state to create a vaccine distribution algorithm, focusing on both delivery speed and equity.
President Biden said the United States will have enough vaccines for each adult by the end of May.