Endless vaccination problems from Šalčininkai: older people agree, but children discourage them, threaten doctors

The remote meeting of the Health Affairs Committee on Friday examined why residents of the Šalčininkai district do not want to be vaccinated and what measures the municipality is taking to try to encourage them.

Extremely rural area

As Josif Rybak, director of the Šalčininkai district municipality administration, said at the meeting, this municipality is a pure rural municipality: 65 percent. people live in the country. In total, there are 450 and 3 cities in this municipality: Šalčininkai, Eišiškės and Baltoji Vokė.

In the Šalčininkai district only 10 percent. the population is Lithuanian, the rest are representatives of other nations. The main ethnic group are the Poles.

“We can also boast of certain indicators: we are a very young district. Based on the percentage of youth, we are always in the top ten. We are also in the top ten in terms of working age. We have a developed network of schools, which is why the teachers also come from other districts, ”said J. Rybak.

There are 3 major health centers in the area, as well as 2 private clinics. However, according to the administration director, his situation did not improve, because all the human resources in them are the same as in public institutions, he did not attract any doctors from other districts.

According to the director, there is currently a severe shortage of doctors in the Šalčininkai district. Especially for families, internal medicine, psychiatrists, and medical consultants.

Around 1000 coronavirus PCR tests are carried out in the Šalčininkai district.

“Our main problem, where we are now stuck, is vaccination, that is why we are in the center of attention of the media, politicians and the population. The jump is visible in the last 3 weeks, here there is already a good sign. That boost was due to the fact that more than 100 companies were allowed. We don’t have many companies of that type, but there were companies where 100 employees came one day and it was a good decision to expand the circle of vaccinated, “said Rybak.

Older people agree, but children discourage them

Šalčininkai has a separate vaccination center at the Šalčininkai Cultural Center, but there are also 19 other vaccination points throughout the district.

A central vaccination working group has also been created. According to J. Rybak, there are separate working groups in each old age: representatives of schools, social workers, the elderly, doctors and even priests participate in them.

“From the first day the explanatory work has been done for the neighbors,” said the director of the administration. He added that there are also mobile vaccination groups that stop in the villages and invite to be vaccinated.

According to J. Rybak, communication takes place in 3 languages. Vaccination is also carried out up to the vaccination centers.

“Everything seems to be going well, the effort is great, but unfortunately there is no result. People don’t want to get vaccinated. That group is very large among the elderly, even if there is doubt, relatives appear who press and then all our efforts are blocked. They argue that their mobility is low, they do not go to the Acropolis or elsewhere, and if they need to be vaccinated it is not the oldest, but their grandson, who can bring a fight.

It also happens that if a family doctor has convinced an elderly person to get vaccinated, we receive aggressive calls or we go ”, lamented J. Rybak.

According to surveys, about 20 percent. people with colds are afraid of the side effects of the vaccine, 20 percent. undecided, 5 percent. wants medical advice and 25 percent. you may already have immunity.

Not vaccinated even after death in the community.

J. Rybak said that there is a unique community of Old Believers in the Šalčininkai district, where many monks of respectable age live. Although this community has been approached several times with a vaccination offer, there has not been a positive response. Even after 50 cases of coronavirus were found in the community and 2 people died, the perception of vaccines has not changed: they continue to be rejected.

“Due to the different vaccines, there is no talk of AstraZeneca, but our older adults do not want Pfizer or Moderna. They simply do not want to be vaccinated, they are afraid. Our hope now is only with the doctors, because we have used the social channel to the maximum” J. Rybak said.

According to the director, the municipality had also invited Professor Saulius Čaplinskas, who communicated with residents in all languages, and a doctor, Valerijus Morozovas, had also arrived. Unfortunately, even after those meetings, the situation did not improve.

The media didn’t help either; According to the director, at the same time there was a lot of negative information about the Šalčininkai district in the media, which further scared people away from the desire to get vaccinated.

“It just came to our attention then […] In terms of Moderna and Pfizer, we use practically all vaccines. “We will have Johnson & Johnson now, but it is difficult to predict how it will work,” Rybak said.

Feel a huge shortage of doctors

Lukas Galkus, Chief Specialist of SAM’s Electronic Health System and Information Resources Division, told the meeting that AstraZeneca in Šalčininkai is extremely difficult to use and completely undesirable.

“If we look at the vaccination of the elderly population, we will see that it is quite slow. […] At first there was a greater intensity, but now we see that only a small part of the people who receive the first dose are older, ”said L. Galkus.

From the end of March until now, Šalčininkai ranks 60th in terms of the number of vaccinated older people. There are 22.88 percent of them, at that time the Lithuanian average is 57.97 percent.

“The situation is really bad in the group of people aged 80 and over, but this group is very poorly vaccinated in Lithuania,” said L. Galkus.

Šalčininkai district chief. Dr. Zbignev Semenovich stressed that the shortage of doctors is a particularly serious problem in the district.

“We basically have 2 therapists and so on the brink. All the problems that arise after that are due precisely to the lack of doctors. They are very difficult to attract, there are common problems that are common to all hospitals in the district. Young doctors ask if we can give them a guarantee that the department will continue to function, or if there will be any change when looking for another job. There is no guarantee that they will have a job, “Semenovich said.

Another problem is that only a third of the doctors in the Šalčininkai district come from Lithuanian universities. Half of them graduated from the University of Grodno. Attracting from other countries is also difficult as it is hampered by Lithuanian laws and bureaucracy.

Danelja Laimutė Sliževska, director of the Šalčininkai Primary Health Care Center, also mentioned the problems of medical institutions at the meeting. One of the most important is bureaucracy and administrative work, which complicates the basic functions of doctors.

“Now, due to the pandemic, doctors have been” accused “of issuing sick leave certificates for children who do not attend school and those who are isolated. The doctor must issue 20 certificates of incapacity for work per day I think it is possible to simplify, not lose these functions to the doctors, “said L. Sliževska. The doctor said that there are many misunderstandings about the bureaucracy.