Some Nova Scotians are still extremely frustrated with the province's online vaccination booking system.
Vern Hicks, an 80-year-old Halifax man, tried to book an appointment early on Monday and ran into the website crashing issues that plagued the system on the first day.
He said he seemed to be getting through the process but when he finished, he got a network error message.
“I took that to mean that the problem was either in the software or the way the program was trying to accept the data over the network,” Hicks said on Wednesday. “So, I felt that the excuse given that the system crashed because of overusage was perhaps not completely revealing to what the actual problems were.”
He feels there was probably very heavy usage, but there might also have been issues with the program development and testing.
Hicks also questions why Ontario-based provider CanImmunize was handling the online bookings.
“They have ambitions of creating a pan-Canada database of immunizations and people immunized, so I wondered at the appropriateness of that, first of all, because there is a program operated by Nova Scotia Health Authority for blood tests, and, I believe, for other diagnostic tests, which allows people to register at various clinics and it seems to work very well,” Hicks said.
He's also questioning what will happen to data submitted to the CanImmunize computers.
The former health economist was not able to secure an appointment.
“They threw this system open to 48,000 people to try to book an appointment when only about 1,400 appointments were available. And I thought that was quite inappropriate. They should have found a better way to handle it.”
Marla MacInnis, spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Wellness, defended CanImmunize in an email on Wednesday.
“CanImmunize is a well known and established Canadian company that has the experience and capabilities required to maintain and deliver what we need for our COVID immunization program,” MacInnis wrote. “A privacy impact assessment and security assessments have been done to ensure they meet our criteria.”
Feels like second-class citizen
Ayeslford resident Rose Gould tried to book a vaccine for her husband Max, who turned 80 on Tuesday.
But the online booking system said all appointments were booked for the clinic in New Minas, she said Wednesday.
The website offered a phone number as well, so she tried that to see if an appointment could be made for the following week.
“At first, I didn't think I would have much success, but I just started calling and redialing and redialing,” Gould said.
“Finally, I got connected. And then I listened to that lovely music for about 20 minutes. Then a woman answered the phone.”
Gould said the woman told her they weren't booking any more appointments.
“She said 'Did you go online?' And I said 'Yes, I went online.' and she said 'Well, why are you calling here?'”
She explained her thought process on possibly booking for the following week.
“She wasn't very friendly,” Gould said. “Not at all, not in her tone or anything. I mean, I can understand that, because she'd been on the phone all morning.”
She got the woman's name but doesn't want to publicize it.
2,208 appointments booked
Gould, a retired nurse, said she and her husband have been staying home for almost a year now. And they've been more cautious than most, she said.
“It's frustrating,” Gould said “We're on the fanatical end of this thing. Every other week, we go out for groceries. We've been wearing a mask long before it was mandated. I think it was last April, we started wearing masks.
“We're doing everything we're supposed to be doing.”
Nova Scotians have mostly followed government directions and did what they're told, she said, and now her husband feels like a second-class citizen.
And when Max finally does get his vaccine, they are frustrated that they will still be stuck at home just because he won't get sick from COVID-19, there's no guarantee he could not carry it and infect others if he gets exposed.
She said they have no choice but to hurry up and wait.
In her email, the Health and Wellness department spokeswoman said there were 2,208 appointments available between the four clinics that launched Monday and those clinics are now fully booked.
“Appointments for the next series of clinics will open on Monday, March 8,” MacInnis said. “We appreciate the patience of Nova Scotians. Everyone who wants a vaccine will be able to get one.”
Complicated process
Steven Shaw, a Halifax senior who had complained about the website crashing, said Wednesday that he was able to get through Monday and book an appointment for next Tuesday.
“So, I'm kind of happy. It's like childbirth, which actually I've never experienced either, but you forget about it until you have another child, women tell you.”
He called the process a “minefield” to get through, requiring him to refresh the browser page multiple times and fill in boxes and check fields that were not obviously required.
“I just wondered how many people my age (80) or older doing this online that were not familiar with computers and stuff would actually get stuck. And apparently they did.”
