Call for walk-in clinics amid dispute over Grant vaccine figures

Just over one in 10 of the population is protected from Covid according to official data, but disputes over the stats have not slowed calls for urgent help in the South-East.

Calls have been made to urgently establish walk-in clinics in the South-East to address low Covid-19 vaccination rates, amid continued uncertainty over the data.

Questions were this week raised about whether the district’s 11.5 per cent double-vaccination rate, published by the federal government, may be inaccurate because Grant residents’ postal addresses, rather than residential addresses, were used to determine who had received the jab.

An Federal Health Department spokeswoman said there were “no errors found in the data”.

She said data was based on a person’s Medicare address.

“LGA data is constructed using geocoded information and is derived from the best-known Medicare address as stated by the individual patient at the point in time of extractions,” she said.

Many Grant residents have post office boxes in Mount Gambier – the local regional centre.

Medicare said customers could choose PO Boxes for either their residential or mailing address in their Medicare record.

Just 11.5 per cent of the council area’s 7072 people aged 15 and over have had two doses and 20.8 per cent have had one dose.

In neighbouring Mt Gambier, 50.7 per cent of people have had two jabs and 81.4 per cent have had one.

Mount Gambier MP Troy Bell.

Mount Gambier MP Troy Bell said walk-in clinics should be established in the town and Port MacDonnell to help boost local vaccination rates.

“I’d like to see that as a focus for the state government over the next four-six weeks,” he said.

“The Victorian situation is getting worse by the day.”

Grant Council chief executive Darryl Whicker said his district had been unfairly labelled as having the country’s worst vaccination rate, amid a lack of clarity on the data.

“It’s not a local government process and we have very little influence in vaccinations other than to support the messaging,” he said.

Mr Whicker said it was not good enough that many months into the vaccination rollout, there was uncertainty over the data.

He said regardless of current vaccination rates, it was still difficult to get local appointments.

He supported calls for local walk-in clinics or “even just a two or three week blitz”. From next week, it will become mandatory for cross border community members to have had at least one jab if travelling back into South Australia.

SA Health said it added an extra 50 appointments at the Mount Gambier Vaccination Clinic each day for the rest of this week and there would be more than 100 appointments added on Saturday.

Vaccination clinic hours and times would also be extended, and the department is exploring places for new clinics. The spokeswoman said in some regional areas, a person’s post office box was in a different council area to where they lived, which could present “an anomaly” in vaccination rates.

Port MacDonnell pharmacist Amir Hanna. Picture: Tom Huntley

By Paul Ashenden

Business at Amir Hanna’s Port MacDonnell Pharmacy is booming.

Locals are flocking to the Grant Council’s sole Covid vaccination site in the wake of a mother from nearby Mount Gambier testing positive.

On Tuesday, his first day of business since new restrictions were announced, Mr Hanna vaccinated nearly 50 people – more than double his usual rate. Demand was similarly high on Wednesday and Thursday. He hopes it will remain that way.

Port MacDonnell, a quiet coastal hamlet with a population of less than 1000, is the largest town in Grant – a council area which has made headlines for having the lowest vaccination rate in the nation.

But speak to most locals, including Mr Hanna, and they’ll tell you they’d be surprised if those figures were correct. They say the numbers reflect people’s Medicare card being registered with a postal address in nearby municipality Mount Gambier, rather than their residential address.

“And so once people get vaccinated, they don’t count towards the statistics for the district council of Grant, they count towards Mount Gambier,” Mr Hanna said. Availability of vaccines had also been an issue for the people of Grant, but Mr Hanna was confident jab rates would increase significantly now that Moderna was available and people aged under-60 were able to choose whichever vaccine they wanted.

Port MacDonnell residents Graeme and Kathie Wright about to get vaccinated at the Port MacDonnell Pharmacy. Picture: Tom Huntley

“It (vaccination rates) will pick up very soon,” he said. “In my opinion, like by the end of the next month, we will reach at least 80 per cent – even in our council.”

Mr Hanna said people should consider booking their injection with a doctor or pharmacist to avoid the long wait for a Pfizer jab at Mount Gambier’s vaccination clinic.

“If you have an appointment (at the vaccination clinic) in November or December or January and you want to get it sooner, try somewhere else, like the pharmacy,” he said.

“Doctors also accept people to come in and get the vaccine – you don’t have to be a customer of that clinic or that pharmacy to get the vaccine. Just look around, give people a ring and ask them ‘when is the nearest time I can get the vaccine?’ And people will be astonished. They can get it very soon. Like within a few days.”

Mr Hanna offers both walk-in and booked vaccinations at Port MacDonnell and later this month will offer group bookings for Moderna or AstraZeneca shots in the small Grant communities of Carpenter Rocks, Donovans and Tarpeena.

He said there was no lack of willingness from the people of Grant to be vaccinated – a view supported by Port MacDonnell businessman Grant Fenston.

“I know plenty of people in this area that have had the jab or jabs and I know it’s way more than 10 per cent,” Mr Fenston said.