H1N1 vaccines slow to come to Mass.

FALL RIVER, Mass.—Massachusetts has started distributing H1N1 flu vaccine doses to doctors and hospitals, but a lot of people may have to wait before they are vaccinated.

The Southcoast Hospitals Group said it asked for 117,000 doses and has only received 5,000.

“(It’s) much slower than we expected and the state and hospitals in Massachusetts share the same frustration that the pipeline has been slow,“ said Patrick Gannon, vice president of the Southcoast Hospitals Group. “We expected to have many more doses by this time than what we’ve received so far.“

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported sending out 660,000 doses so far, enough to vaccinate 10 percent of the population. It also said it expected to be further along at this point based on what it was told by the federal government.

The doses going out now are prioritized for pregnant women, children and high-risk patients.

In the meantime, flu worries are filling local emergency rooms.

“We’ve seen an increase of visitors in the emergency room with flu-like symptoms,“ said Marcia Liggin, chief nursing officer at Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River.

Southcoast Hospitals is reporting heavier traffic at all of its hospitals. It said it’s mostly patients with mild symptoms who don’t need to be admitted.

Doctors at Charlton said they haven’t seen any serious H1N1 cases yet.

“If people have mild illness, and they have no underlying medical conditions, they may not need to seek medical treatment. They need to be at home, they need to follow normal guidelines for treating the flu—rest, fluids and something to bring the fever down,“ Gannon said.

Experts told NBC 10 that it’s very important that if symptoms worsen or get better then worse, to get help immediately.

At Southcoast Hospitals, it has implemented precautions recently barring any children under 18 from visiting the pediatric or maternity units.

Jen Cabral became a new mother over the weekend. She said she didn’t mind that some of her relatives couldn’t bring their kids to visit.

“I like the policy because I wouldn’t want someone to be around my child that was sick,“ Cabral said.