Last Updated: Wednesday, November 11, 200
Quebec health officials say they are close to setting up a system to bus schoolchildren to swine flu vaccination centres.
Putting together a vaccination plan involving more than one million school children is not an easy task, said Quebec's chief public health officer, Dr. Alain Poirier.
"A few details have to be fixed, but it's going in the right direction," he said at a news conference in Quebec City Wednesday.
The chief of health protection at Montreal's public health department, Dr. Terry-Nan Tannenbaum, said there is still a lot to figure out.
"There's the consent to be vaccinated; there's the consent to be transported; … there's making sure we have all the information, for instance, on allergies or other problems," said Tannenbaum.
One Montreal parent said the idea to bus students to clinics isn’t such a good one.
"Many children will be afraid," said Elise Desjardins, the mother of two school-age children.
She said children might be more at ease if they got the flu shot at their own school.
At the national assembly, Parti Québecois health critic Bernard Drainville said the plan sounds like a field trip destined for failure.
"It is obvious the solution is to do vaccinations in schools. Why aren't you doing it?" Drainville asked the Liberals during question period.
"[This is the way] to vaccinate the most students possible ... the most efficient way," replied Liberal Health Minister Yves Bolduc.
He went on to say that if the government slows down the vaccination process for schoolchildren, it will delay the rollout of vaccination for the rest of the population.
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