According to spokesperson Carla Boeren of Humanitas, the foundation under which Nobel’s brother’s nursing home falls, it is a bit more complicated. “Because we were able to get more vaccine from the bottles than previously thought, we were able to vaccinate more people than just the residents,” she explains. “We have made a waiting list for this. According to the RIVM guideline, only people who are connected to our organization may be on it.”
The list included care workers, domestic support, home care workers and volunteers. “Informal carers are unfortunately not eligible under this guideline.”
On Tuesday, January 26, the nursing home received the vaccines and within four days all residents and everyone on the waiting list were vaccinated. “What was left was no longer tenable after that.”
A spokesperson for the RIVM says in a response that if institutions can vaccinate an entire waiting list, they have simply ordered too much vaccine. “But once you have it in the house, informal caregivers can also be vaccinated. Everything to avoid having to throw away vaccines. As long as all the care personnel have their turn first.”
Too much ordering necessary
According to the Twente care group Carintreggeland, institutions with multiple locations in particular cannot avoid ordering more than is necessary, because the vaccines are contained in an ampoule per six. “For example, if there are 21 residents at a location, then you still have to order 24,” said a spokesperson. The care group, which has 22 nursing homes, therefore ordered 1014 vaccines for 953 clients. There were still more of them left due to illness and death.
Ultimately, 129 employees were vaccinated with the vaccines that remained. “These are employees who were on the waiting list of the GGD to be vaccinated after the call in early January,” said the spokesman. All ordered vaccines have been used with this.
GGD’s
The staff of nursing homes and care for the disabled are vaccinated at GGD locations. People over 85 living at home can also go there after they have received an invitation. Almost everyone who has an appointment also shows up. “Only 0.25 percent of all appointments are canceled,” says a spokesperson for the umbrella organization GGD GHOR.
On average, there are about five vaccines left per site at the end of the day. These are administered to the people who take the injections. Stories are only known from GGD Amsterdam of gaps in the vaccination grid that had to be filled. This allowed five 80s make an appointment because there was space left, a GGD employee started calling around at the end of the day looking for people over 85 who could receive the remaining vaccines.
Five percent waste
Wasting nothing at all is never possible. The RIVM takes into account that five percent will be lost. For example, if air bubbles have to be removed from the syringe and a few drops are spilled as a result. “Ten percent is a common standard for injecting vaccines,” said the spokesman. “But we have adjusted that because the corona vaccines are pricked very accurately.”
There will also be some leftovers from time to time. But throwing away vaccines is emphatically not the intention. “The guideline really does not allow that. We call on doctors to use common sense and prick everything up.” If vaccines are left, the institutions must “call immediately”, says the RIVM. Then they are collected and redistributed.
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