A cruel waiting game

A LOT of confusion now attends the State’s covid19 vaccination programme. Much of it is of the Government’s making.

Nobody expects the State to magically produce vaccines out of thin air. The problem of hoarding, the anaemic supply, the leaving-behind of smaller states – these are real issues.

What the State can control are the systems it puts in place.

“We are primed and ready to go,” said Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh last week Monday. Previously, he had assured his team was working over the Easter weekend.

In truth, Mr Deyalsingh had a year to figure out what should happen when the time came to vaccinate.

Teething problems are to be expected. But what has been unfolding in the last few days goes beyond the natural margin of error in any carefully devised system design.

The first issue relates to the grossly inconsistent policies being espoused and implemented by upper and lower levels of ministry officials. The mixed messages began from the moment people were told to call to make an appointment, then in the same breath advised they could walk into vaccination sites to schedule a jab.

We are in the middle of a pandemic of a highly contagious disease. Making appointments by walking in should never have been an option, even with sanitary precautions. Indeed, that is why appointments are necessary in the first place.

What is worse is that this has been allowed to stand in full knowledge that – in fact, because – the phone lines were likely to buckle. To date, despite the clearly enormous demand, such phone lines have been increased in a piecemeal, inadequate way.

And we are told to wait another week for an online portal, even though these have existed for some time in other government agencies – even the once-notorious Licensing Office.

Even the most conservative estimate has long suggested the need for vaccines to cover hundreds of thousands of people, in a country of almost 1.3 million. Was the ministry waiting for all the vaccines to arrive before devising a system? Was the "policy" simply wait and see?

The experience of the North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) shows plainly how that system has fallen down.

According to CEO Salisha Baksh, more than 2,000 people walked into the Diego Martin Health Centre alone last week to schedule appointments.

The inclusion of last-minute walk-ins in a mass vaccination exercise on Saturday at this same health centre rendered the entire system an arbitrary game.

Nobody wants the Government to do the impossible. It is understandable that shipments will be delayed, the supply frustrated.

But meanwhile, it is real people – young and old, rich and poor, privileged and vulnerable – who are left to take part in a cruel lottery, with little sign of an orderly or equitable process on the horizon.