Sask. pharmacy vaccination pilot project delayed due to shortages of doses

With vaccine shipments experiencing delays, Saskatchewan’s pharmacy pilot project is being put on hold.

Myla Bulych, director of professional practice at the Pharmacy Association of Saskatchewan and a practising pharmacist in Regina, said the plan has been in the works for weeks.

The goal is to have around 400 pharmacies across the province administer vaccines. But before that, about 40 pharmacies were going to be used as a pilot project; about 10 were going to be given the Pfizer vaccine and about 30 were going to be given Moderna.

“The idea is to test the process. A couple of the vaccines have really tight storage requirements and so they’re going to be shipped out to, eventually, about 400 pharmacies across the province,” Bulych said. “We just want to make sure that every single thing from distribution to the injection process (and) documentation is all practised.”

But with Moderna shipments being delayed, the pilot project is being delayed for the most part. Pharmacies that were set to get the Pfizer will still go ahead, possibly as early as next week.

“It’s happening across the world for shipments, not just Canada. When Canada doesn’t receive Moderna product, it trickles down to each province and then of course to every professional that might be using that product,” Bulych said.

“I believe that we’re aiming for the beginning of May now but, again, that’s going to be highly dependent on what the country gets.”

While Bulych admits it’s frustrating, she says this is no easy task.

“I guess the only thing that has been the consistent thing during COVID has been the surprises and the curveballs. We don’t really have time to get too bent out of shape about it; we just have to pivot our strategy,” Bulych said.

“As frustrating as things are, things change by the minute sometimes and with the Moderna supply being on hold, we just have to do our best to deal with it and move forward so we can get as many people vaccinated as possible.”

She thanked the Ministry of Health and the Saskatchewan Health Authority for the hard work that is going into the vaccine rollout.

She said pharmacists may not be able to answer everyone’s questions about the pilot project as some are still being contacted.