Elderly still waiting for flu vaccine

High-risk patients have faced yet another wait for their full-strength flu vaccine in some areas.

The vaccine began to be distributed to medical centres last week for a scheduled start date of yesterday for those eligible for state-paid flu vaccination.

Some clinics had still not received doses yesterday and had to put off sick and elderly patients expecting to be vaccinated.

But the Health Ministry and drug-buying agency Pharmac denied there were additional delays.

The vaccination programme usually starts in late March but was postponed while health officials sourced full-strength doses after the original supply, Vaxigrip, was found to be weaker than planned against one of three flu strains covered.

Vaxigrip is still considered strong enough for use among healthy adults under 65. They or their employers pay for the vaccination. The vaccination of this group started nine days ago.

The 510,000 doses of full-strength vaccine are reserved for people eligible for the state-paid programme: those aged over 64 and others with a range of health conditions. The ministry says the first to receive it should be high-risk children and those adults with heart or lung conditions, particularly older people.

The Medical Association's GP council chairman, Dr Peter Foley, said his Napier medical centre serving nearly 5000 patients had not yet received any full-strength vaccine. He expected the first doses to arrive today.

Since the vaccine had to be kept cold, its supplier could not distribute doses late in the week if there was a risk it would not arrive until after a clinic had closed for the weekend.

"They won't have dispatched them unless [clinics have] got them last Thursday and obviously many places didn't and those that have got them have got small amounts," Dr Peter Foley said.

"We asked that it reach all non-metropolitan and particularly non-Auckland, non-Christchurch practices by last Thursday and I was assured that would happen.

"It's frustrating and confusing for our patients not knowing when it's going to start. The message is that patients need to check.

"There have been some problems with practices needing to re-order and reconfirm orders previously placed, because of the changes in vaccine availability. That would account for some practices not getting it, but not ours."

But Pharmac medical director Dr Peter Moodie said the distribution was on time. "The only thing we hadn't thought about was that it was Anzac Day on the 25th," so practices could not receive vaccine deliveries then.

Three-quarters of orders made by Tuesday last week for full-strength vaccine had been delivered by last Friday, he said, although some orders were only part-filled because only the first 100,000 doses were available.

The remaining quarter were to be delivered by today.

Another 180,000 doses would go out next week and a further 230,000 the following week, Dr Moodie said.