An Aucklander who is caught up in a potential mix up at the Highbrook Vaccination Centre still hasn't been contacted by the Ministry of Health and the designated helpline had no idea what he was talking about.
File photo. Photo: VOISIN/PHANIE
This is the second person who has been in contact with RNZ unhappy with the communication coming from health officials about the incident.
Five patients out of more than 700 may have received the wrong dose of the Pfizer vaccine or just saline on 12 July and still weren't told six weeks lateruntil RNZ broke the story.
The saline is used as a diluent for the vaccine once it has thawed.
Once the incident was made public, the Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said all those affected would be contacted within 24 hours via email or letter.
Paul* said he decided to contact Healthline after having not received a letter for almost a week and was referred to the Vaccine Healthline.
The Ministry of Health said it has provided the same information from the letter to the Vaccination Healthline last Monday.
However, when Paul contacted the vaccine line the following afternoon, the call taker was having difficulty finding him in their records and tried to refer him back to Healthline.
When he refused to call Healthline again, he said the advice he received from the call taker was "extraordinary".
"They literally said on the call, that I was fine because my vaccine card said Pfizer, it didn't say saline," he said.
Paul informed the call taker that he was vaccinated on 12 July and he should have received a letter - to which they replied there was no letter on file, so he would not be affected.
When he asked to have that confirmed in writing this was refused.
"All I want is some reassurance or be told what to do, or get my letter," he said.
He then asked to speak to a supervisor and was told he would receive a phone call.
He was contacted late that night and told he would be receiving a letter in the post, but they could not say when.
Paul asked for the letter to be emailed to him as he had provided his email, but he still hasn't received it.
He said he does not blame the call takers or vaccinators, but was concerned that other people will receive similar misinformation and not question it.
National's Chris Bishop said it beggars belief this person was told they were fine, because their vaccination card said Pfizer instead of saline.
"The whole problem is that people aren't sure whether or not they did get Pfizer or saline, so the idea that would be written on their card is unbelievable.
"We need to know urgently exactly what happened and the ministry needs to conclude its investigation which has taken some weeks already," he said.
The Ministry of Health would not say how many people it had been unable to contact, but a spokesperson said there were occasions where emails had bounced back.
"Where we held other contact details, these were used instead to contact the person. For some people, no other contact detail was held," they said.
RNZ has agreed to keep the identity of the person vaccinated at Highbrook anonymous due to the impact it could have on their employment.
The ministry said it would not disclose any further information unless RNZ gave them contact details of the patient.
It ignored questions about whether the information that it had provided to the Vaccination Helpline had been passed on to staff.
A spokesperson said those affected will be informed of the next steps by 10 September and the ministry will not be offering any further comment.
