'Epic fail': seniors shiver for more than 2 hours waiting for COVID-19 vaccines in Newmarket

'System and process issues' caused delays at Ray Twinney Centre, Southlake says improvements on the way

Yorkregion.com
March 5, 2021
Kim Zarzour

Mary Beth Kelly thought she had won the lottery when she scored a vaccine appointment for her 83-year-old father.

But when the Aurora resident arrived at the Ray Twinney Complex vaccine centre Thursday afternoon, it was, she says, “an epic failure.”

Vaccine appointments are like gold here for the over-80 age group. When the first round of appointments was released March 1, the booking system was swamped and 20,000 time slots taken within 90 minutes.

An additional 2,000 appointments were released March 4 for five locations -- one of which was the Ray Twinney, operated by Southlake Regional Health Centre.

Kelly says she followed all the rules -- arriving exactly 10 minutes ahead of her father's 1:30 p.m. time slot, equipped with a walker, wheelchair, heated pads, blankets, extra jackets, masks and water bottles, but quickly discovered “the whole thing was a circus.

“The parking lot was beyond capacity, cars doing u-turns, backing up, snaking around trying to find space. I saw one woman with bare ankles sitting on a walker by her car. It was an absolute gong show.”

Kelly said she counted more than 200 people lined up outside and heard appointments were running two hours behind.

Others described similar issues.

Leaning on his walker, his wife and daughter holding him up by the arms, an exhausted 87-year-old Attilio Campagna struggled to stand in the long lineup.

While the Richmond Hill resident tried to find humour in the situation, joking, “I like a lineup,” his daughter, Grace Cialone, was furious.

“It’s completely wrong,” she said, after 45 minutes in the cold. She, too, arrived as instructed, 10 minutes ahead of the 1:20 p.m. time slot.

“They should have made it better for the elderly because a lot of them can’t even stand and he (her father) is one of them. There’s nobody coming out to check on them, there’s nobody to control anything,”

Ann Beswick of Bradford also called the two-and-a-half hour lineup, which her 87-year-old mother was forced to leave due to her low mobility, an epic fail.

"How do you have over 80 people in the line without bathroom facilities, and no nothing," Beswick said.

Beswick said a staff member at the door of the building told her they were running behind.

"Running behind is 10 or 15 minutes. Two-and a half hours is completely unreasonable. It's cold, windy, no bathrooms, absolutely appalling to say the least," Beswick said. "Haven't we shown our seniors enough disrespect already?"

Newmarket Mayor John Taylor attended the site after hearing about the problems.

He said most of the elderly residents have now been seated inside the complex with help from town staff members.

"Frankly, when you look at that audience, it brings tears to your eyes," Taylor said.

"We are trying to do a lot of work tonight and tomorrow morning, but we will ask the work to be done to make sure there are contingency plans because it's far too much to ask," Taylor said.

In an emailed statement, Southlake acknowledged the long lineups and apologized.

“We appreciate everyone’s patience as we work through this. We know that everyone is very eager to get their vaccine and we are doing our best to get vaccines in arms as quickly as we can. Early this morning, we experienced some system and process issues resulting in delays as we opened the vaccination centre.”

The statement says Southlake has opened a second arena with seating and more staff and security helping move people through more quickly.

“As we continue to vaccinate different age groups and those with mobility issues, we will be modifying our scheduling system to accommodate the different needs of the people being vaccinated.”

Similar complaints were voiced by residents on the first day of vaccinations earlier this week, by residents who waited in the cold at Richmond Green and the Vaughan Cortellucci locations.

York Region medical officer of health said there have been challenges with the expedited local rollout.

Dr. Karim Kurji had hoped the Ontario booking system would be launched by now but, rather than wait until the provincial launch date of Mar. 15, opted instead to use an existing booking system normally used for camps and classes in order to get a head start.

Kelly remains frustrated.

Her father, reluctant to get the vaccine in the first place, insisted on returning home without the vaccine.

Now she knows she’ll have fight to win the appointment lottery and convince him all over again.