Vaccination facility with crowded service

For about 4 months now, every weekend, Hai Duong Clinic No. 1 (137 Thanh Nien Street, Hai Duong City) has been crowded with people bringing their children for vaccinations. The clinic’s two other locations in Ke Sat Town (Binh Giang) and Phu Thu Town (Kim Thanh) are also equally crowded.

Doctor Nguyen Huu Tram, Head of Hai Duong No. 1 Preventive Treatment and Consultation Clinic, informed: “Before April, the clinic only received an average of 30 children per day for vaccination. From May until now, this number has increased to 60-70 children per day, with 100-120 cases per day on Saturday and Sunday alone.”

The Duc Minh Vaccination and Nutrition Consulting Center has five facilities in Hai Duong City and Nam Sach and Ninh Giang districts. The number of children coming to the facilities has increased sharply in recent months. In the third quarter, the center's first facility on Nguyen Luong Bang Street (Hai Duong City) received an average of 200 children for vaccinations per day, double that of the first quarter. On some weekends, the facility received nearly 400 children. "The number of children coming for vaccinations is the highest ever. Many times, parents have to make their children wait quite a long time for their turn to be vaccinated," said Dr. Tran Thi Thuan, in charge of the Duc Minh Vaccination and Nutrition Consulting Center, Facility 1.

According to the reporter's investigation, Hai Duong province currently has nearly 40 vaccination service facilities. The number of children of the right age coming to get vaccinated at many facilities is higher than before. Some facilities in Hai Duong city attract many children from neighboring districts to get vaccinated. Ms. Nguyen Hai Yen in Thanh Ha district brought her child to Hai Duong No. 1 Prevention and Treatment Consultation Clinic to get vaccinated and shared: "Getting vaccinated here costs money, but vaccines are always available. The important thing is that your child gets vaccinated on schedule to better prevent diseases."

Many families who can afford it choose to send their children to vaccination service facilities because they have vaccines that are not yet available in the expanded immunization program, such as “6 in 1” (to prevent chickenpox, hepatitis A, pneumococcus, meningococcus and influenza, mumps), encephalitis, hepatitis. Most of the vaccines at these facilities are imported from France, Belgium, the US, etc.

The number of children vaccinated has increased, but many vaccination service facilities have not encountered a shortage of vaccines. Many facilities have cold storage for vaccines that meet GSP standards and facilities that are qualified for vaccination have been announced on the website of the Hai Duong Department of Health. The team of doctors, pharmacists, and nurses at the facilities are mostly experienced. Through the investigation of reporters at some large-scale vaccination service facilities, it was shown that no child who received a vaccine had anaphylactic shock, which was life-threatening, but only had normal reactions.

Due to many reasons, since March this year, public health facilities across the country in general, and in Hai Duong in particular, have been short of some important vaccines in the expanded immunization program. On the contrary, vaccine sources at service vaccination facilities are not in shortage. The large number of customers helps the facilities operate smoothly. However, most importantly, the system of service vaccination facilities has contributed to meeting the needs of many families, sharing some of the "pressure" for public health facilities in the context of some types of vaccines still being in shortage.

The health sector encourages families who can afford to take their children to licensed and qualified vaccination service facilities for vaccination. After vaccination, families need to notify the local health station to update the national vaccination software.