Unclear when urgent care providers receive vaccine for medical staff

COLONIE, N.Y. (NEWS10) — The COVID-19 vaccine has made its way to many hospitals and emergency rooms, however, not every doctor fighting on the frontlines has received it. Some health care workers still have no idea when they will get vaccinated.

“I think from the beginning, urgent care centers are really at the forefront of this pandemic,” says Dr. Nosa Lebarty CEO of CentralMed Urgent Care.

Every single day, the medical staff at CentralMed Urgent Care are testing patients. The staff is seeing an increase of testing. Dr. Lebarty says he has no idea as to when he and his staff will be vaccinated. He says it feels like urgent care health professionals are considered to be forgotten frontline workers.

“I think for anyone, if you talk about frontline workers, you think immediately about hospitals and emergency rooms,” says Dr. Lebarty.

We reached out to the New York State Department of Health to see if Urgent Care Healthcare providers are on the list. “As [the] Governor has repeatedly stated the first New Yorkers to receive the vaccine will be high-risk hospital workers, nursing home residents, nursing home staff, followed by all long-term and congregate care residents and staff, EMS workers, and all other frontline health care workers,” says Jeffrey Hammond, Public Information Officer for NYSDOH.

A spokesperson from WellNow Urgent Care sent NEWS10 a statement that says, “We are working aggressively to get vaccines for all of our frontline workers at WellNow Urgent Care Centers and hope to make those available to our staff sometime in January. We are also working on plans to be a part of vaccine distribution in the communities we serve. We don’t have timing on that yet but I hope to know more soon."