So the premier and senior heath officials have had poor access to the vaccination. I don’t really think so and if they did, there are huge problems and no-one in Queensland would have been vaccinated.
The QLD government has been admitting to the stockpiling of vaccinations…the spin is that it is that anyone who gets the first injection, one is stockpiled for their second vaccination. And then how about the others which are being stockpiled…maybe these are the ones for the officials if and when they decide to have the vaccination. The stocking of vaccinations has been unnecessary and isn’t done by any of the other states to the same extent as Queensland. Stockpiling is a impediment to the vaccination program as it removed potentially up to 12 weeks (AV) of stock being available to the community.
That’s possibly correct…but when you stockpile vaccinations which have shelf lives for no apparent reason, there become a critical point in time where vaccinations are likely to expire. To increase demand/use of the vaccinations to ensure they aren’t thrown out (imagine the media field day and backlash if this did happen), they have opened up to the 40-50 year 2b groups.
In general they have been, albeit within the constraints and learnings from the early roll out. Some states have been more successful than others, and the less successful states should be looking over their borders to see what others states have done to improve the rollout success within the constraints that exist.
Which is irrelevant when we are discussing our personal access locally. I never said that was why those individuals had not yet been vaccinated AFAIK.
More than 60% of Australians surveyed have said unconditionally they will line up. It would seem that it’s more than enough to overwhelm the current roll out rates.
I can’t find online any hard data to tell either of us what the status of the supply nationally of each vaccine is, or what has been issued to each state. That says to me the availability data is being concealed at a national level.
Is there is nothing to hide, why is it not being published along with the daily vaccination stats? That data is just not unique to one state.
Note that the individual daily vaccination rates are available for each state, but not for the 2/3 rds, delivered by the Commonwealth independently in each state. Nothing to hide the Federal Health Minister should be able to answer?
We can only relate directly to our local situation. The only GP clinic offering Covid vaccination has a waiting list of up to 2 months. It said it is not getting adequate or reliable supply, with just 80 doses in each delivery.
Our regular GP in Caloundra (not a small practice) and central to a community of 50,000+ Has mention previously is only doing Groups 1A or 1B - 70yrs or over.
We have been directed to approach one of two hubs further away - 40km!
Even as we discuss our local area, Victoria has not vaccinated any residents from 29 aged care facilities in Group 1A.
Similar may be true of the other states. Without more transparency and better reporting, accountability is opaque or obscured. That includes understanding the roll out is taking longer because ……
Not keeping all fully informed is a sure way to loose confidence. Don’t we all deserve better?
We are 1B eligible and it took until 19th of May to get first shot when we had applied at the very first for when it would be available. We had clinics telling us they had too many clients and not enough doses. We tried up to 60km away without success. It is a joke.
Our local GP is the same. They suggested making contact with the Tassie government popup vaccination clinics as it would be faster as supplies appear to have been prioritised to these clinics. Ended up getting it through the popup clinic two weeks later (which was the next sessio6in our town)…reminds me…must ring the GP to be removed from their waiting list.
This might be the best option in Qld…
Preference possibly should be to use these government clinics rather than the GP. Many GPs are already near patient capacity and adding a vaccination which can be done elsewhere might prevent them seeing other patients which may need a GP consultation.
When the 2a group opened for my partner the GPs did not want to know anyone who was not already their customer (mostly) and the ones that were happy to help anyone who raised interest had long backlogs with under-supply exacerbating the process.
Appreciate the interest. That is the site we referred to. The Qld site leads to the Commonwealth Web resource. The first suggested clinic for us is the local GP clinic that advised they could not take a booking. They could only add us to the wait list months long. The next 4 on the list are also GP run clinics!
As suggested previously, perhaps a holiday in NEW or Victoria might be the way to go. We do have several clinics further away to check. None are state Govt run.
As an update, yes, we do have a booking. At a GP surgery halfway to Brisbane. And not unsurprisingly, we need to sign on to HotDoc to confirm the booking!
As an observation, the inability of the local and closer surgeries to meet demand suggests there is no vaccination hesitancy locally. Just a concern over supplies getting to the GP’s locally, all of whom are on the Commonwealth web site list of vaccination providers. It is most odd given the supposed high level of supply of the Astra Zeneca vaccine and ease of transport and storage.
A further note from the Qld Govt web site (per the link previously @phb). It clarifies one situation re the Qld Govt vaccination hubs.
It’s worth noting the State Govt vaccination centres do not provide for those in Group 2A, 50-69 year olds. The options for those Queensland residents are principally GP based.
P.S.
It’s really annoying that while my GP nor my partners GP are registered with the National and State Covid vaccination plan, either can deliver a simple straight forward Astra Zeneca jab at this time. No doubt Hot Doc will be pleased to add us to their data set, something that would not have been necessary if we had been able to use our regular GP or the Regional State Govt hospital located hubs.
Its actually a decent app. My GPs have been using it for a couple of years, and booking appointments is so much easier than having to ring and often wait in a phone queue. Or not be answered at all as happened often during the first weeks of the pandemic. I prefer to keep my stuff private but I don’t think there are many privacy issues with Hotdoc.
Thank you for the thoughts.
One needs to acknowledge the terms and conditions of service twice in the process of registration.
I did find the statement by HotDoc that I was agreeing to allow them to use anonymised data a sign they may do more than provide a booking service.
The greater curiosity remains that the Qld State Govt run clinics/hubs are not providing service to those in Group 2A (50-69 years). This group has been predominantly directed to GPS or GP clinics. I’m fine with that outcome considering. Both my current GP in Brisbane and ex (alternate) in Caloundra are on the Commonwealth Covid providers list. The Qld Govt web site defaults to the same list. Unexpected though - neither are able to provide vaccination, which has introduced a different GP for a one off service, and a special trip 30km down the road.
Only a sample of one. It is however a very important ‘one’!
The federal government is facing mounting criticism for Australia’s slow vaccine rollout after it was revealed only one in three staff had been vaccinated at an infected Melbourne aged-care home.
In addition, just 53 of the home’s 76 residents had received even a single dose of the vaccine.
P.S.
The Victorian outbreak has certainly spurred some action. The local AMCAL pharmacy in our next town (Beerwah, Qld) now has a sign out offering walk in Covid vaccination. It was not listed in the State/Commonwealth site list on Sunday (yesterday).
This does beg the question, what did centre management do to accelerate the vaccinations? There have been reports that centres have been waiting patiently to be contacted by the commonwealth/state governments, rather than actively being proactive in seeking vaccinations. Hopefully the latest outbreak spurs on the management of each centres to proactively seek vaccinations for their residents, rather than hoping that the government will (miraculously) organise it for them on their behalf. One would expect that the welfare of their residents is taken serious and their number 1 priority.
Yes, perhaps the industry should have been screaming out to the press that the Govt was failing to meet needs. Perhaps they were to the Minister, but not to the point of biting the hand that feeds it. It’s important to note the supply of vaccines has been strictly controlled.
Our understanding from the operator of our mum’s aged care facility is also otherwise. The Commonwealth Aged Care services set up teams specifically to deliver the vaccinations. The capacity available and scheduling has been up to the Govt. The teams have not been idle. Locally some of the Aged Care staff indicated they were tired of waiting for the Teams to move or rotate to our facility. Getting vaccination externally also proved difficult. The National Private Operator is based in Melbourne! It appears the larger aged care facilities located in the high density more urban coastal areas were vaccinated first, shortly after the rollout was announced in Canberra. We have that rollout advice in our regular news letters.
And the Covid vaccination is currently optional for age care workers…they can chose not to have it which appears some have made this choice. Today the Commonwealth Government, along with the states, announced it is assessing whether it should be mandatory. This might be the reason why the union’s New Daily made the report blaming the government to divert attention from age care workers chosing not to be vaccinated potentially exposing some of the most vulnerable to Covid infections when and outbreak occurs.
I am surprised that it wasn’t mandatory.
It has been managed and there have been ongoing reports there is more than sufficient supply to vaccinate age care residents around the country.
If staff are chosing not to get vaccinated, I wonder if this is affecting their judgement in relation to pushing for their residents to be vaccinated.
If the aged care staff were reluctant to be vaccinated, what ever their age group or vaccine, the Federal Minister for the Aged or Health Minister would be best placed to say so. Silence?
We know staff who went out of their way to get vaccinated early.
We will need to disagree as to whether the Govt has honestly shared the true status of the delivery of vaccine supplies and supply for roll out across the nation. What ever the reason, it is a massive failure. The lack of transparency and detail only fuels distrust.
