Priscilla Fournier is 68 and suffers from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of cancer.

On Tuesday, the Lewiston woman spent nearly five hours queued up with about 200 other people waiting at the Hannaford supermarket in Auburn to get a flu shot. While about 170 of those in the line were inoculated, Fournier and perhaps three dozen others weren’t.

“The nurse just stopped giving shots at 7:30,” said Fournier.

It wasn’t that the Maxim Healthcare Services flu clinic had run out of vaccine in this year of vaccine shortages.

“She just said it was past quitting time,” Fournier said.

Now, she added, “I’m feeling panicky. I’m also very tired. I waited so long for that shot.”

“It’s a shame,” said Sean Dugan, the Maxim accounts manager who set up the clinic. But, he noted, the nurse providing the inoculations had already stayed a half-hour beyond the 3-to-7 p.m. hours posted for the clinic. She couldn’t stay any later, he said.

Since word of a nationwide flu vaccine shortage broke a week or so ago, Dugan said Maxim clinics have been deluged with people seeking shots. Maxim provides flu clinics and other health services nationally.

Maxim’s supply isn’t endless, though. For Maine, Dugan said, the company allocated 9,000 doses.

“Number 9,001 will be disappointed,” he said.

Number 9,001 won’t be waiting in a clinic line, however.

Cancels clinics

On Thursday, the company announced it was canceling its public clinics after Saturday. What supplies Maxim has left in Maine, Dugan said, will be reallocated to nursing homes and hospitals.

Dr. Dora Anne Mills, director of the Maine Bureau of Health, is hoping to see more such reallocations. Already she has praised International Paper and Fairchild Semiconductor, among others, for donating doses of vaccine for state use in rural clinics and elsewhere.

Mills on Thursday also praised St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center and Central Maine Medical Center for showing extraordinary cooperation in dealing with the vaccine shortage.

The Lewiston medical centers, she noted, while typically quite competitive in serving their market, are taking unprecedented steps to make certain patients most in need of the vaccine get it.

Kayt Demerchant, a spokeswoman for St. Mary’s, said its medical and preventive medicine staffs have been meeting with their counterparts at CMMC as well as the city’s Pediatric Associates to put together a coordinated community flu prevention program.

Within a week, Demerchant said the hospitals and Pediatric Associates will likely be able to announce a schedule of flu clinics to supply vaccine to patients who meet Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. The clinics will be timed so people will have the vaccine in their systems for at least two weeks before the anticipated onset of flu season.

Prevention programs

The program will also include outreach educational efforts explaining steps that can be taken to prevent people from getting the flu.

Dan Marois, a spokesman for Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington, said prevention education is taking center stage there as well.

“Much of it is common sense,” Marois said, “stuff your grandmother taught you,” such as washing hands frequently and covering the mouth when coughing.

Mills said the state is making available brochures and fliers explaining flu prevention as well.

And Maine continues its efforts to secure additional doses of vaccine, she added. The state has less than half of what it is estimated to need to inoculate everyone who falls into high-risk categories.

As a result, Mills said doctors and others who administer flu vaccine are being required to conform to CDC guidelines, which in turn are being narrowed down to the most vulnerable people: Children 6 months to 23 months; adults 65 and older, particularly those in nursing homes or long-care facilities; people with chronic health conditions; and health care workers who have direct patient contact, especially those providing critical care.

Mills said that while hospitals in some states have reported offers of vaccine at inflated prices, there have been no signs of gouging in Maine.

Maxim’s Dugan said that while the company is for-profit, it didn’t raise is flu vaccine prices this year when the shortage became apparent. “We’re aware that gouging has been an issue of concern,” he said, adding that Maxim wouldn’t be a part of it.

Demerchant said that there could be a ray of hope on the flu front.

“They’re estimating a mild flu season,” she said.

Thus far, there hasn’t been any significant outbreak of flu anywhere in the nation.

The CDC is expected to chart flu outbreaks on its Web site beginning today.