Kelowna man describes booking his mother's vaccine appointment

Photo: CTV News

The first day of the vaccine bookings here in B.C. saw more than 1.7 million calls to the vaccination appointment line on Monday as residents tried to book their appointments. The high volume of calls came despite the fact that fewer than 100,000 residents are eligible to book an appointment this week.

The province opened the lines at 7 a.m. on Monday for residents aged 90 and above, and Indigenous peoples 65 and older — a group making up about 82,000 people in the province.

Despite the massive delays, Wayne Ikesaka tells Castanet he managed to book an appointment for his 90-year-old mother.

"This is for reference to others so you know what to expect. Started calling the number at 8:45 a.m., most times I was turned away 'due to unusually high call volume'. Every now and then I would get further to be eventually turned away 'due to technical difficulties'."

Ikesaka says eventually he got through and was only on hold for about ten minutes before he managed to speak to a person.

"Once I spoke to someone it was quick, supply PHN (personal health number), date of birth, postal code and your preference of location, you provide them a contact person and email address, and that’s it!"

Ikesaka tells Castanet his mother is hard of hearing so she couldn't book her own appointment but once he got past the initial delays due to volume, which took about three hours, things went smoothly.

"It took about three hours, but I suspect there were at first issues with the phone system, that were ironed out. Good luck to everyone, stay calm and be patient. We’re getting there."

Ikesaka's 90-year-old mother will now be getting her vaccine shot next Monday.

Health Minister Adrian Dix urged the public to only call to book their vaccine during the appropriate week. Appointments are not booked in a first-come-first-served fashion and phone lines will not be as jammed later in the week.

"Every week, we are going to have more and more people eligible to call in," he said. "That means the demand on our system are not going to get less, they are going to grow every week."

Dix did, however, admit that they "have to do better" in responding to the demand.

"I wanted to express my appreciation to everyone working on this today, to those booking appointments and everyone who has shown patience on this first day... I want to let them know, that we know we will do better and that is my expectation in coming days."

The provincial government has said vaccine bookings will eventually move online in Phase 3 of the province's plan.