Father concerned children without family doctors in N.S. waiting too long for routine shots

A father on Nova Scotia's South Shore is worried that infants without a family doctor are waiting too long for routine vaccinations against illnesses like measles, polio, and whooping cough.

Bill Rodger of Bridgewater said his 14-month-old daughter is on a wait-list to get her next scheduled shots, but he has no idea when she will get them. 

That's because Public Health staff who normally provide routine childhood immunizations have been reassigned to COVID-19 vaccination clinics, which has caused a backlog.

"We don't want our children getting measles and tuberculosis," Rodger said. "Or polio. Polio is dangerous. Don't let it come back." 

Wait-list for family doctor

Infants like Rodger's daughter who are seeking a family doctor are among the nearly 72,000 Nova Scotians on the provincial wait-list for a physician, according to the latest numbers released by the province.

The only way for those babies to access routine vaccinations is through Public Health.

Rodger said he was told by Public Health personnel the backlog is so lengthy in Bridgewater that many infants are missing what they described as "the four-month window for ideal vaccination times."

"That's an equity issue," he said. "There's one segment of the population being treated and the other [not]."

Rodger said the Public Health nurse he eventually spoke to was sympathetic and also frustrated with the delays in routine infant vaccinations.

"She was like, 'You need to make some noise about this because we, as nurses, are powerless,'" he said.

Phone messages unanswered

Adding to Rodger's frustration is that Public Health's phone system was not working for a period of time. After calling repeatedly and leaving a couple messages over several months, Rodger said he went in person to speak to someone at a Public Health office in early July.

That afternoon, he received two calls from Public Health, and a representative later apologized to Rodger, saying they had been having trouble with the phone line and were unable to access messages.

Rodger said it is "unbelievable" that Public Health would have an unreliable phone system during a pandemic. 

In an email, a spokesperson for Nova Scotia Health said there was an issue early on where calls to Bridgewater Public Health were being rerouted to a nurse's desk phone instead of the regular main number. 

She said they worked with Bell to rectify the problem and a provincial phone line was established.

Vaccination clinic planned

She also said that a catch-up vaccination day is tentatively booked for Aug. 26 at the Fishermen's Memorial Hospital in Lunenburg for South Shore families. They will be contacted directly to book appointments once the details are finalized.

The federal government's Canadian immunization guide states that "age recommendations for receipt of vaccines are based on the age at which the risk of disease is highest and for which vaccine safety and efficacy have been demonstrated."

It also says "maximum protection may not be attained until the complete vaccine series has been administered." 

A statement from Catherine Hebb, Public Health director for Nova Scotia's western zone, said that if routine childhood immunizations are delayed, an individualized catch-up schedule is available.

For example, she said, Public Health in Nova Scotia recommends that children receive the MMRV (measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella) vaccine at 12 months and 18 months. However, if a dose is delayed, the vaccine is shown to be safe and effective up to 12 years of age.