Sutter Health has canceled up to 95,000 appointments on vaccines in Northern California due to ongoing issues and inadequate allocation of vaccines over the past few weeks, the healthcare provider said in a statement Tuesday.
Of these, 90,000 are for second doses and 5,000 are first doses.
“We are concerned about the impact this will have on our elderly and vulnerable patients,” Sutter said.
Sutter calls patients and will put them on a priority list when new stock arrives.
Sutter’s spokesman said the state advised the provider to use the initial vaccine allocation for the first doses. “We have said that the state will replenish our stock for second doses,” the spokesman said. But the award for second doses has yet to arrive and only a drop of vaccine has been distributed to Sutter sites in recent weeks.
Sutter administers the COVID-19 vaccine to his patients at mass vaccination sites; there are several in the Bay, including the Santa Clara Convention Center, the Alameda County Fairgrounds, the San Mateo Event Center, and the San Francisco Produce Market.
Due to the shortage of supply, Sutter only interrupted the first doses for the first dose in February and is now postponing the scheduled appointments for the first dose indefinitely until 9 March.
The provider is warning patients with second-dose appointments scheduled for March 9 that their appointment should be canceled.
Sutter said he plans to call patients in seven to ten days to reschedule.
“We have urgently requested the additional grants from the state to prevent the vaccination of the more than 90,000 second doses currently available in our books from being canceled,” Sutter said. “This is an extremely unfortunate situation for our patients, and it can be avoided if we can get additional vaccine.”