It is difficult for the city of Helsinki to find new nurses to give the fourth corona vaccine.
The new ones the vaccination recommendations push the city of Helsinki, which is struggling with a serious shortage of nurses, into a tightrope.
The Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare (THL) recommended on Monday that fourth doses of the corona vaccine should be distributed to new population groups already in July.
Head physician of Helsinki health centers Timo Lukkarinen according to, vaccinating new groups cannot be done in an instant.
He was the first to tell about it
Democrat
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“At the current rate, it takes time. We would like to vaccinate everyone who wants to immediately, but that is not possible,” says Lukkarinen.
According to him, right now there are not enough workers to significantly tighten the pace of vaccination. Transferring staff to vaccination points would be out of the way of other health care.
At the current pace, vaccinating the population groups mentioned in THL’s recommendation would take about three months, Lukkarinen estimates. There are approximately 115,000 new vaccine recipients in Helsinki, and approximately 9,000 vaccines are currently given per week.
However, the pace is intended to tighten.
“We vaccinate as much as we can. The goal is to increase the vaccination staff, and when the summer vacations are over, the situation will definitely improve.”
THL early on Monday with his recommendation on giving fourth corona vaccinations to 70-79-year-olds, adults belonging to risk groups and all 60-69-year-olds. According to THL, new population groups could be vaccinated already in July, or in August at the latest.
Helsinki will start distributing the fourth vaccinations to 70-79-year-olds in the next few days, but there is no information yet on the vaccination schedule for other groups.
Before Based on THL’s new recommendation, Helsinki had planned to double its vaccination capacity by mid-August. According to Lukkarinen, we intend to stick to the plan, and the pace will be accelerated if more personnel are obtained.
Locker however, does not consider the slower rate of vaccination to be a particularly serious problem. In his opinion, greater damage would be caused if nurses were now transferred to vaccination duties.
“If vaccinators are hired, it is out of the question. They could be available, for example, in operating theaters or wards. “
Today in the summer, a record low number of substitute nurses have been hired. According to Lukkarinen, there is not a single extra employee, and already, for example, four health centers are closed for the summer.
“Of course, one could close the emergency room and stop treating patients, but would that make sense? If staff are transferred to become vaccinators, you have to think about what is left undone.”
Lukkarinen points out that THL’s recommendation now concerns fourth vaccines, which are booster vaccines. There is already protection against severe corona disease from previous vaccinations, and it has not completely disappeared. Nor has a strict time limit been given for vaccinating new population groups.
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