The COVID-19 vaccine waits for no one. That’s exactly what Julie Kupersmith, MD, a community physician in Westchester County north of New York City, has discovered.
Kupersmith, a plastic surgeon, is among those supposedly included in New York’s first priority group for vaccination, but she has been unable to get a shot, she told MedPage Today.
For weeks, she has phoned and emailed nearby hospitals as well as her local and state health departments, to no avail, she said. As she hears of hospital-based physicians, nurses, and administrative employees who have already received their second dose of the vaccine, she said she has no idea when she’ll be able to get her first.
New York has since opened up vaccination to adults age 65 and up and other frontline workers. And like other states, it’s experiencing a shortage of doses.
Health departments continue to refer Kupersmith to the state’s online portal for scheduling vaccination appointments, she said. However, the only open time slots she has been able to find through the portal are hundreds of miles away.
As of Monday, the nearest appointment available was 413 miles north of Westchester County at Plattsburgh International Airport.
For physicians dependent on seeing patients, such a time-consuming trip is next to impossible, Kupersmith said. She called the entire process “frustrating.”
Though Kupersmith said she is taking all of the safety precautions in caring for patients, she said she is concerned for her health, and what would happen if she fell ill and had to close her practice for an extended period of time. She said community physicians are often undervalued.
At the beginning of last month, as community physicians became eligible to receive the vaccine, Bonnie Litvack, MD, president of the Medical Society of the State of New York, said in a statement that the organization was fielding hundreds of emails and phone calls from providers asking where they should go to get immunized.
Litvack told MedPage Today on Monday that those concerns have largely eased, and most of its physician members and their staff have been able to get at least a first dose of the vaccine.
However, she said there are likely instances where community physicians haven’t been able to be inoculated, given limited shipments of doses. Some physicians have had to travel hours to get the vaccine.
“It’s really supply and demand here,” Litvack said. “We’ve got high demand and limited supply.”
A survey conducted by the medical society late last year found that nearly 80% of New York’s community and hospital-based physicians planned to take the COVID-19 vaccine once it became available. Only 7.5% of respondents indicated they would not.
Litvack said she believes that, as additional vaccines enter the mix, community physicians will be able to obtain doses to help vaccinate other individuals. She said she is encouraged that some 70% of healthcare workers in the state have at least gotten the first dose.
Erin Silk, a spokeswoman for the state health department, said in an email that the agency “continue[s] to do everything we can to get as many New Yorkers vaccinated as quickly as possible.”
“Currently over 7 million New Yorkers are eligible for the vaccine, but our weekly allocation of doses from the federal government was cut by the Trump administration without any explanation,” Silk said. “We are encouraged by the Biden administration’s announcement that we will now get a 16% greater allocation, which means more vaccines for all eligible groups in all regions of the state.”
Kupersmith said she doesn’t know if receiving the vaccine would be a game-changer for her and other community physicians who may be struggling to do so. Another primary concern is that reliable access to COVID-19 testing and personal protective equipment is still elusive for smaller practices at this stage of the pandemic.
However, “it would definitely make me feel more comfortable,” she said.
Source: MedicalNewsToday.com
