(Photo: submitted)
A drive-thru flu shot clinic in the north end of Moncton proved to be a popular spot this month.
Pharmacist Monte Steeves says they’ve offered flu shots in the past, but due to the pandemic, they had to make some changes.
Before COVID-19 they would hold a clinic at the Mountain Road Jean Coutu store once a week.
With free flu shots being in high demand, he worked with his staff to come up with a way they could vaccinate large volumes of people safely and without appointments or crowded waiting rooms.
They came up with the drive-thru concept, where people received their vaccination without leaving their vehicle, “We decided, that we wanted to see that we could make this happen and do it safely. It’s basically a rehearsal for a COVID-19 vaccine. We can make this happen for large volumes of people safely.”
The drive-thru clinic was held on one Saturday and two Sundays in October. Around 1,450 people received their free flu shots.
“The process was, there were four team members. The first thing, people stayed in their own car. If you keep people in their own environment, the risks are minimal. They pulled up, a team member asked the screening questions for COVID-19 and filled out the vaccine paperwork. Another staff member then took the clipboard and gave me the information. I would vaccinate them, and they were asked to wait 15 minutes, to be sure there weren’t any side effects. At the same time, all pens and clipboard were sanitized, and everyone was wearing PPE.”
Over two weekends, vehicles lined up around the block, patiently waiting for their turn to get a free flu shot.
He says the response from the public has been very positive, “We all met as a staff at the end of the day and basically, of the 1000 people we did that first weekend alone, we have 1000 positive responses. We were just totally overwhelmed with just how much kindness and positivity we received.”
Steeves says he would hold the clinics every weekend, but he has run out of flu shots.
“We are actually a couple of weeks early this year. Last year, I don’t think I started giving shots until the first week of November. I was very surprised by the response. I assumed my allotment of 500 flu shots would get me through the first weekend, but it didn’t, so I had to borrow from other stores,” Steeves says.
He adds, going forward in future, this is how his team will be doing flu shots every year, “It’s the only way to do it moving forward. There’s no way you can possibly get that many people through in an individual office. There’s a reason many physicians aren’t doing flu shots this year in their offices. Simply because they can’t accommodate the volume of people and the fact that they have to wait fifteen minutes afterwards.”
He says the setup and the process was a lot of work, but well worth it.
