The federal government could lose as much as $1 billion in COVID-19 vaccines by the end of the year while millions of doses remain in state inventories, says Auditor General (AG) Karen Hogan.
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In a report submitted to Parliament on Tuesday, the latter estimated there were 32.5 million doses in stocks across the country at the end of May, the vast majority (28 million) of which were soon to reach their use-by date.
Additionally, as of May 31, only half of the 169 million COVID-19 vaccines since the pandemic began in Canada have found recipients, or about 84 million doses.
Ms Hogan also notes just over 50 million “excess” doses as of May 31, the date when the audit was limited. More than 15 million of these have already been donated and Canada plans to distribute another 21 million. However, these doses could expire before they are distributed.
However, the VG recognizes that the government acted quickly by placing bulk orders for COVID-19 vaccines from seven different companies in the context of a historic public health crisis.
“By entering into these agreements, the government increased its chances of receiving enough doses to provide the largest immunization program in the country’s history, while recognizing that this approach could result in an overdose of doses if all vaccines are one day approved.” would,” he told Karen Hogan.
Better data exchange required
The VG points to the lack of communication between the various levels of power, in particular between the federal states responsible for vaccination and the federal government responsible for care.
“Problems with the exchange of health data” were also identified “in 1999, 2002, 2008 and more recently in 2021” by the AG office.
“There is an urgent need to address these long-standing issues, including the implementation of a pan-Canadian information sharing framework, as health data sharing is at the heart of effective surveillance to keep the people of Canada safe,” she said a press conference.
“I wonder how many other health emergencies we have to go through as a country before we can find a solution to this. [ce problème]”, she added.
Federal Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos also addressed this problem. The latter even made it a sine qua non for increasing provincial health transfers.
“Our health record system is not a world-class system, it’s a middle-class system,” he lamented. He mentioned that provincial systems still used paper and fax.
It goes without saying that the Minister “welcomed” the recommendation on data sharing contained in the AG’s report.