Technical glitch with Ontario’s COVID-19 vaccine booking system results in over 3,000 excess appointments in Ottawa

A technical error with the province’s COVID-19 vaccine booking system has resulting in over 3,000 excess appointments at two of the clinics located in Ottawa.

According to a Friday memo from Anthony Di Monte, general manager of emergency and protective services, and Dr. Vera Etches, medical officer of health, the city discovered that appointments had been double-booked as a result of data entry errors made by the province.

About additional 3,116 appointments were booked at the Eva James Memorial Community Centre and Ruddy Family YMCA-YWCA.

This error means that some individuals with appointments booked through the provincial system at these two locations on March 23, 24 and 25 will be contacted shortly by the province to rebook their appointments.

“Every effort is being made by the province to rebook these individuals as soon as possible,” the memo said. “As such, given that capacity limits would be exceeded at the original locations, the city is adding vaccination capacity by opening a clinic at the Francois Dupuid Recreation Centre in Orleans and expanding the Nepean Sportsplex clinics for March 23, 24 and 25.”

The additional capacity is reserved for those who are contacted by the province to rebook their appointments.

If a resident’s appointment is affected, the resident will be given a call to re-schedule, or will receive an email from the Ministry of Health advising to call the Provincial Vaccine Booking Line at 1-833-943-3900 to reschedule.

The city said only a relatively small portion of the total appointments booked through the system are affect by this error.

More than 17,500 appointments are unaffected.

The problem with the provincial booking system does not affect the Ottawa Public Health booking system for priority neighbourhood pop-up clinics, and for the Indigenous community, which continues to operate normally and can be accessed at 613-691-5505.