Saturday, April 6, 2024 Walk-in/Urgent Care Clinic, COVID-19 and Flu Shots 9am-12pm, at Ironoak Medical Clinic. Open to the general pubic and our family practice patients. Please see "Saturday Walk-In" on our website for more information.  

2023-09-05 - Fall Vaccine Updates & Wellx migration to Ocean

Dear Patients,

The physicians & staff at Ironoak Medical Clinic hope you had a safe and restful summer! As the fall (and cold/flu season) approaches, we have been getting a lot of questions about vaccinations. In summary, your doctor recommends:

1. Influenza (Flu) vaccine every year for all ages, especially seniors and young children. These are typically available starting in October and we will announce our flu clinics closer to this time. 

2. COVID-19 vaccination is RECOMMENDED for everyone aged 5 and over (and available for anyone aged 6 months or older). A booster dose (with the bivalent COVID vaccine) is recommended this fall (i.e. late September/October) for anyone in this age group whose last booster (or COVID infection) was more than 6 months ago. This is especially important for patients aged 65 or older, residents of long term care homes, and individuals with underlying medical conditions or who are pregnant. You can safely get a COVID vaccination at the same time as a flu vaccine. You can get a booster earlier if you wish - COVID vaccinations are still available at Ironoak Medical, or through public health or your community pharmacy. See https://halton.ca/covidvaccine for more information.
   
   Note that it is not known at this time when the newest version of the COVID vaccine will be available in Canada - the bivalent vaccine is the currently available version. Please get vaccinated with whichever version is available. 

3. RSV vaccination - this is a new vaccine that will be available for patients aged 60 and older by early October, which significantly reduces the risks of RSV infection. RSV is a very contagious virus and can cause bronchiolitis or pneumonia. It is unclear at this time if OHIP will cover this vaccine. If it is not covered, it may be covered by third party insurance. We will send out another announcement next month, when it is available (including cost / coverage information) and you will be able to book an appointment if interested.

If you have more detailed questions about vaccinations, please feel free to message, or book an appointment with your physician.

***

Finally, as many of you know we have been trialling Ocean, a service that allows secure messaging similar to Wellx. Ocean however is better integrated with our computer system, and has many more features like appointment reminders and patient questionnaires that we have been getting lots of positive feedback on. So far it has not had any annoying bugs that prevent sending attachments. Online booking is another feature of Ocean, we are in the final testing stages and expect to implement this for appointments (including vaccination/flu appointments) in the next few days - expect to get another update with information on this soon!.

Since Ocean now has all the features of Wellx and more, we are phasing out this older system. Our Wellx connection will officially close on September 30, 2023 after which time you will no longer be able to send us any messages on this platform. (You can use the “Send Secure Message” link on our website to send us an Ocean message instead!). Wellx advises that you will be able to continue accessing old messages from our clinic until the end of the year, but will lose all access after that.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions,

Ironoak Medical Clinic