Qld launches free flu vaccinations from today as hospital crisis worsens

Queenslanders will be able to receive a free flu vaccination from today as the state grapples with a worsening health crisis and hospitals prepare to open flu clinics outside emergency wards.

Queenslanders will be treated in outdoor flu clinics outside emergency wards as the Palaszczuk Government is forced to spend up to $40 million on free flu shots to stop the hospital crisis escalating further.

All Queenslanders who don’t already qualify for free flu vaccines will get them from today as the Acting Chief Health Officer warns “flu can be worse than Covid” for an unvaccinated community.

The jabs will be available until June 30 under a six-week sprint to stop hospitals grinding to a halt from hundreds of influenza A and Covid hospitalisations.

Courtney Mawn from Coorparoo getting their flu jab from Pharmacist Amanda Seeto. Picture: Steve Pohlner

The announcement came as Health Minister Yvette D’Ath confirmed authorities were this week planning to resurrect “acute flu clinics” last used during the swine flu pandemic a decade ago by recycling tents recently used for Covid patients.

Ms D’Ath said authorities would monitor for flu spikes in local communities and deploy them at specific hospitals as needed.

When people arrive at EDs, they will be tested for influenza A and Covid in the tents and then triaged, with patients diverted away from hospitals and back home to be managed there “through a virtual hospital”.

GPs would also be asked to test patients for influenza A so advice could be given on whether they could also be managed from home, or should go to hospital.

On Monday, there were 360 people in public hospitals with Covid and 151 with influenza A, including 10 in intensive care. Some of those people had both infections.

Ms D’Ath said admission rates were already the same as at the end of the horror 2017 flu season.

“We expect in the next two to three weeks that our cases will end up at least doubling, so we could end up with hospitalisations well over 400 or 500 hospital admissions,” she said.

“And that won’t be the peak … we don’t know what the peak’s going to be.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk yesterday announced flu vaccinations would be free for all Queenslanders until June 30. Picture: NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

She said there would be workforce shortages across business and the health sector as staff came down with the flu and businesses should actively encourage their workers to get vaccinated.

Ms Palaszczuk said the flu vaccines were a vital preventive measure, which is why she’d taken the extraordinary step to fund them.

“Otherwise, if we don’t do this now, we’ll see our hospital swamped with people with flu and we don’t want that,” she said.

Ramping at the Royal Brisbane Hospital as the Queensland health care system buckles under pressure. Picture: NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

People are asked to get the jabs at their GPs or chemists, but Ms Palaszczuk confirmed schools could be used as vaccine centres if necessary.

Acting Chief Health Officer Dr Peter Aitkin said vaccines could seriously reduce infection rates and the severity of the disease in a population that hadn’t been exposed for several years and lacked natural immunity.

“Flu can be a severe disease,” he said.

“In an unvaccinated community, it can be worse than Covid.”