Cancellations include both first and second dose appointments, most affecting members of the bay area. Sutter Health confirms that cancellations of the second dose will have priority to reschedule.
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It’s the last one I wanted to hear from 80-year-old Sean Sheik.
“We need to reschedule you,” Sheik said.
Sutter Health abruptly canceled its appointment to vaccinate the second dose scheduled for Tuesday morning, giving no opportunity to reschedule it.
After attending the Sutter Health Clinic in Santa Clara County, Sheik received a pamphlet and was told there were not enough vaccines.
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Aside from Santa Clara, viewers report the same problems in San Francisco, San Mateo and Alameda counties. A writing: “Consulted on the site, it says all doses have been canceled until further notice.”
Sutter Health confirmed that more than 90,000 first- and second-dose consultations could be canceled due to a delay in shipments stemming from bad weather to poor state communication.
“We have been urgently asking the state for the additional allocations we need to avoid canceling the more than 90,000-second vaccination appointments currently on our books,” said Monique Smith of Sutter Health Communications . “This is an extremely unfortunate situation for our patients and that is preventable if we manage to supply additional vaccines.”
Sutter added that they are urgently asking for more doses from the state and Blue Shield, saying the state did not understand its “first and second dose inventory.”
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“Sutter Health data didn’t come cleanly to the state, so the state had believed for several weeks that Sutter had a large dose inventory, but that wasn’t true,” Blue Shield CEO , Paul Markovich.
He denies the company’s transition contributes to that delay, but says the first batch of incoming doses for Sutter will arrive early next week.
“We will be putting a lot more doses on Sutter in the coming weeks so they can reschedule these appointments to oppose canceling them,” Markovich said.
The Blue Shield CEO added that Sutter’s situation is why all vendors should be tied to a performance management system in order to maintain an accurate inventory.
Thus, immunocompromised essential workers like Shiek are not left waiting.
“We’re all going to work in a lot of fear, it’s quite a setback,” Shiek said.
ABC7 News turned to the California Department of Public Health for an explanation, but they have not yet learned.
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