Vaccination doses in Baden-Württemberg are spontaneously redistributed due to canceled appointments

• ofJulian Baumann

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Currently, almost every tenth appointment for a corona vaccination with Astrazeneca in Baden-Württemberg is not kept – this means that the vaccination doses can be redistributed.

Stuttgart / Ulm – The vaccinations against the corona virus in Baden-Württemberg are well advanced since they started in December last year. According to the latest information from the State Health Office, over 4.4 million people have already been vaccinated against Covid-19 for the first time and around 1.6 million have been completely vaccinated.

When the vaccination campaign started, an appointment was only possible via a hotline or an online platform in one of the district vaccination centers. There were often long waiting times and some citizens complained about the complicated technology of the platform. Since April, however, the general practitioners in Baden-Württemberg and doctors in Stuttgart have also started their own platform for vaccination appointments.

Although vaccines from several manufacturers for a vaccination against the coronavirus are now available in Baden-Württemberg, there is still a shortage of vaccines. Therefore, citizens who already have the first vaccination are given preference at present.

The vaccine from Astrazeneca became a slow-moving in Baden-Württemberg and currently almost every tenth citizen does not attend a previously agreed appointment for a vaccination with the controversial vaccine, like the one Südwestrundfunk (SWR) reports. Therefore the vaccination doses can be redistributed spontaneously. In Stuttgart, on the other hand, there is currently no vaccine dose left.

Vaccinations in Baden-Württemberg: Clear difference in the popularity of vaccines

The current shortage of vaccines against the coronavirus in Baden-Württemberg can be explained by the fact that many citizens already attend the previously agreed second appointment. Nevertheless, appointments are repeatedly canceled in the vaccination centers in the southwest, or patients simply do not show up at the agreed time, reports the SWR.

In the vaccination center in Ulm, the rate of missed appointments is constant at three or four percent. At least for vaccination appointments with the vaccines from the manufacturers Moderna and Biontech. At Astrazeneca, however, nine percent of the appointments per day would have to be filled again or differently, said Hagen Feucht, the organizational head of the vaccination center.

Due to the canceled or missed vaccination appointments, citizens who want to vaccinate have a chance to still receive a vaccination against the coronavirus in Baden-Württemberg. The vaccines are not wasted in the centers. “We don’t prepare the vaccine until the person shows up. That has proven itself, ”said Hagen Feucht to the SWR.

However, the head of the center in Ulm criticizes the complete dissolution of the vaccination priority and the release of vaccines for everyone. “Anyone who is now entitled to be vaccinated and has not yet had an appointment will hardly get an appointment because of the lack of a vaccine,” he said. “And later he hardly has a chance when everyone rushes to meet the deadlines.”

Vaccination center in Karlsruhe: “Even Biontech appointments are not kept with us”

Also in the district vaccination center in Karlsruhe, appointments for a vaccination against the coronavirus in Baden-Württemberg are sometimes not kept. Since the start of vaccination in the local doctor’s practices, those willing to vaccinate would also make an appointment in the practices parallel to the vaccination center, said Dieter Hassler, the head of the two vaccination centers in the Karlsruhe district SWR.

“Even Biontech appointments are not kept with us because people may have already had an appointment with their family doctor.” On some days, up to ten percent of patients do not come to a previously agreed vaccination appointment.

The doctors have several options for redistributing the vaccine doses that are left behind by not keeping the appointments, reports the SWR. “The key here is the practice’s individual solutions. From waiting lists to mailing lists, everything is possible, ”said Manfred King, spokesman for the Baden-Württemberg family doctors’ association.

Even in the vaccination center in Ulm, despite the missed appointments, there were no vaccine doses left against the coronavirus in Baden-Württemberg at the end of the day, said a helper who works as a referral and in the registration. “I’ve never heard of a syringe being thrown away.”

In the district vaccination center of the state capital Stuttgart, however, there is basically no vaccine left, said Annette Seifert, spokeswoman for the Stuttgart Clinic SWR. In the Swabian metropolis there are also no problems with missed appointments.

“The interest in a vaccination is so huge that all canceled or missed vaccination appointments can be filled immediately by other people who want to be vaccinated,” said Seifert. Even with the Astrazeneca vaccine, people “like to be vaccinated frequently”.

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