Cancellations include both the first and second dose meetings – most of which impact members in the Bay Area. Sutter Health confirms that canceling the second dose will be given priority for rescheduling.
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That’s the last thing 80-year-old Sean Sheik wanted to hear.
“We need to reschedule you,” the sheikh said.
Sutter Health abruptly canceled its vaccine meeting for the second scheduled dose Tuesday morning – without giving it a chance to reschedule.
After presenting to the Sutter Health Clinic in Santa Clara County, the sheikh received a leaflet and was told that there were not enough vaccines.
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Apart from Santa Clara, viewers report the same problems in San Francisco, San Mateo and Alameda counties. A letter: “Checked on the spot, it says that all doses were canceled until further notice.”
Sutter Health has confirmed that more than 90,000 appointments for the first and second doses could be canceled due to a delay in deliveries due to bad weather and improper communication from the state.
“We have urgently requested the additional allocations we need from the state to prevent the cancellation of the more than 90,000 doses of vaccination at the current dose currently on our books,” said Monique Smith of Sutter Health Communications. “This is an extremely unfortunate situation for our patients and one that can be avoided if we can get an extra amount of vaccines.”
Sutter added that he urgently requests more doses from the state and Blue Shield, claiming that the state misunderstood “the inventory of the first and second dose.”
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“The data from Sutter Health was not clear to the state, so the state believed for weeks that Sutter had a large inventory of doses, but that was not true,” said Blue Shield CEO Paul Markovich.
He denies that the company’s transition contributes to this delay, but says the first batch of doses received for Sutter will arrive by the beginning of next week.
“We will put much more doses to Sutter in the next few weeks so he can reschedule these appointments to oppose their cancellation,” Markovich said.
The CEO of Blue Shield added that Sutter’s situation is why all suppliers should be connected to a performance management system to maintain an accurate inventory.
So, immunocompromised essential workers like Shiek are not left to wait.
“We all go to work with a lot of fear, it’s quite an obstacle,” Shiek said.
ABC7 News contacted the California Department of Public Health for an explanation, but has not yet heard.
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