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Renfrew County and District (RCD) is celebrating the fact that, to date, nearly 50% of its adult population has received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
However, with such high demand for vaccination, and a limited but growing supply of vaccines, it is more important than ever that those who have multiple first-dose vaccination appointments or cannot attend their appointment, properly cancel their booking using the cancellation link received in their booking confirmation email. We also ask people to book one appointment only.
“In a large number of our clinics, we have recently experienced a rise in the number of ‘no-shows’ for first doses resulting in anywhere from 40 to 150 doses of vaccine that we have to find arms for,” said Dr. Robert Cushman, Acting Medical Officer of Health for the Renfrew County and District Health Unit.
“No dose goes unused, which means that our clinic teams have had to scramble in many cases and work very hard to find people to fill those spots on short notice. This has been done using lists of those who have called in for appointments but haven’t received one yet, calling those who may have appointments booked a few weeks out, and making arrangements for health care workers now eligible to receive an earlier second dose to get theirs, but it’s not easy,” Dr. Cushman said.
To help reduce the number of calls that need to be made, clinics are now overbooking by a small percentage in anticipation of a certain number of “no-shows” per clinic. However, the public is also being asked to do their part when they can no longer attend their first-dose appointment or have already received their vaccine elsewhere, to go back into their emailed booking confirmation and scroll down to complete the cancellation section so that someone else wanting to book can do so when that appointment time reopens online.
Second Dose Booking Cancellations
For second dose appointments, due to vaccine demand and limitations people are asked to ONLY cancel if ABSOLUTELY necessary.
Second dose appointments cannot be cancelled or rescheduled through the online booking system.
If you must reschedule a second dose appointment, call (613) 732- 3629 ext. 202 or 1-800-267- 1097 ext. 202 and leave ONE message with your request to cancel this appointment. After your request has been received, you will be added to a second-dose waitlist until we have availability for you to be rescheduled and then you will be called with a new appointment date and time.
“We want to thank everyone for their patience and understanding throughout this vaccination rollout. We know that the information is confusing, it’s constantly changing and there’s a lot of it, but we will get through this and everyone who wants a vaccine will get one,” stated Dr. Cushman.
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