Family medicine is in a state of crisis, exacerbated by the pandemic which, eight months in, has totally disrupted primary care physicians’ ability to provide face-to-face, quality care.

Things are so bad that while governments are urging everyone to get a flu shot to avoid a “twindemic” many doctors and their patients are confused about where to get vaccinated, just days away from the time when people typically start getting them.

At a visit to my own doctor’s office last month (for a shingles vaccination by the clinic nurse) I was told that I would have to make alternate arrangements if I wanted a flu shot. Then I heard rumblings about drive-through flu clinics, maybe even in the same parking lots where COVID-tests are offered by health regions. But I heard today from the ministry of health that drive-through vaccination centres are not being contemplated in B.C. even though they are happening in other parts of the country.

Instead, flu shot appointments, according to the B.C. government, can be made at “clinics, schools, large municipal spaces, and pharmacies where physical distancing and other public health measures can be maintained, and where individuals can be observed after their shot for the standard 15 minute monitoring period.”

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