‘This is the community in action’: Disability vaccine outreach initiative

From the article in Healthy Debate:

Tara Kiran, a family physician at St. Michael’s Hospital and Fidani Chair of Improvement and Innovation at the University of Toronto, has been working with patients who face access barriers in vaccine programs. “As family doctors, one of our key roles is care coordination – and right now, that means a lot of time spent trying to help people navigate the confusing vaccine system,” says Kiran. “Sometimes that means booking an appointment on behalf of a patient, other times it means helping to arrange transport or other support to ensure they are able to get to the appointment.”

Kiran is grateful that community volunteers, including platforms like Vaccine Hunters, have revealed gaps in the system. “I’m a doctor who is pretty immersed in the logistics of the vaccine rollout and I’ve found it hard to figure out which of my patients is eligible for a vaccine, where they can get it and how they can book,” she says. “We have too many queues and that means a system that is confusing but also inefficient and inequitable.”

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