Alberta Health Services is hoping to make it easier for people in northern Alberta to get their influenza vaccinations.
“We’ve identified over 93 different and new locations,” said Executive Director of Public Health, Primary Care, and Chronic Disease Management (North Zone) Donna Koch.
“So we still will have our clinics at our Thickwood office for example, but we’ll have a number of clinics throughout Fort McMurray and area.”
She says AHS recognized issues of accessibility and hopes to alleviate them for the coming flu season, which runs October to March.
“What we’ve tried to do is increase the dates, times of clinics, the days, offer some evenings, some Saturdays,” she listed. “Basically wanting to meet the needs of our population in the North Zone, and in particular Fort McMurray and area.”
And with continuing growth in the Wood Buffalo region, she says AHS has recognized and acted to accomodate the greater population.
“We’ve hired extra staff, we actually have a couple of positions specifically for Fort McMurray and area, where we’ll be targeting families, so we can look at the access issue and also decreasing wait times.”
AHS’s public campaign will begin on Monday, October 17th.
Clinic schedules will be available at http://www.albertahealthservices.ca and at HealthLink Alberta at 1-866-408-5465.
