Volunteering at Vaccination Centre

e c e n i r e p x E t n e u d t S

V O L U N T E E R I N G A T T H E V A C C I N A T I O N C E N T R E

W O R D S & P I C T U R E S B Y T O N G H U I Q I & A M Y L A I P E I C H U N

omeone once said,S

“If not me, then who? If not now, then when?” – and there is virtually nothing else that resonates more with us at this moment.

Though there was initially much hesitation for us to step up and pursue this humbling volunteering experience due to the possible risk of exposure (especially in the midst of the peaking COVID-19 cases in our country), we thought to ourselves that if everyone else had the same perception as us, who would then volunteer and contribute their part? Moreover, since this opportunity is undoubtedly one that is rare to come by, why not take it up and gain some memorable experience while we’re at it? As full-time students on summer break, this was probably all we could do to try and curb the spread of this deadly disease in our country.

With this in mind, we immediately signed up to be volunteers under BP Healthcare Group right after our finals ended. BP Healthcare is allocated one of three stations at the World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur, which is the go-to location for various local and international conventions such as the renowned MATTA fair held annually pre-COVID. Now, amidst the pandemic, WTCKL serves as a vaccination centre in town, administering well over 8,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine per day.

As non-medical volunteers, our job scope was pretty much limited to the very basic bits –ushering and helping out at each area of the entire vaccination process such as registration, doctor consultation, the vaccination itself, and observation plus counselling post-vaccination. Well, mainly the behind-the-scenes, if you would like.

In case you were wondering about hilarious questions we received throughout our volunteering experience (we know you weren’t, but we’ll tell you anyway), one that immediately comes to our minds would be the vaccinees asking if they were allowed to shower or drink water post-vaccination, to which we reassured them that it was perfectly fine to do so. I mean, it is vital to keep yourself clean and hydrated at all times! That being said, it was rather pleasing to be able to speak to different vaccinees and see the satisfied smile put on their faces after their queries were resolved.

Not only that, but as student pharmacists, we were fortunate enough that the pharmacists-in-charge agreed to let us shadow them for day-to-day activities such as vaccine collection, distribution, stock counting, and more! On these days, we would climb out of bed an hour earlier than usual to catch the pharmacist as they gathered the ice boxes and relevant storage containers to transport the day ’s stock from Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) to the vaccination centre. At HKL, the pharmacist-in-charge would first record the temperature of the ice boxes (the vaccines must be kept between 2-8°C) before passing us the vials for the day.

Once we returned to the vaccination centre, the pharmacist would update the receipt of the stock on the government’s vaccine management system (VMS) and the vials would then be distributed to all vaccinators to be used – and its dispensing recorded on the VMS as well. All these had to be done before the first appointment at 9am. The centre’s doors were then officially opened for the public and our day began!

All in all, it had been a rather fulfilling experience from dealing with health-illiterate patients to enjoying sponsored meals to gossiping about haunted washrooms! Oh, and not forgetting shivering in the cold room of the hospital and glorying in the luxury of a police escort and its wailing siren on the way back to WTCKL from HKL. There is simply no denying that this was a summer well spent, especially with the free daily scoop from Inside Scoop for us volunteers!