AMAQ calls on QLD government to make early call on free flu jabs for 2025 influenza season
Flu jabs should be kept free for all Queenslanders amid a cost-of-living crisis, the state’s peak medical body has warned.
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Flu vaccination should be kept free for all Queenslanders amid a cost-of-living crisis, the state’s peak medical body has warned, as the new government wavers on a decision to keep the program alive.
The state government has provided free flu shots for all Queenslanders for three years running, but newly minted Health Minister Tim Nicholls revealed he wanted to consider the program’s efficiency before making a decision.
Mr Nicholls also signalled he would be raising to issue at the next national meeting of health ministers in December.
Australian Medical Association Queensland president Nick Yim said there had been 80,000 cases of the flu so far in 2024, and the virus had the potential to put a lot of pressure on the healthcare system.
“It is really important that next year our community, our state, continues to have these free flu immunisations,” he said.
“And I think we do need to make that decision, because GPs and pharmacists need to start planning for our stock purposes moving into next year.”
The start of the flu season varies, though it usually kicks off in April, with cases tapering off in October.
The decision to provide free flu vaccinations during the 2024 season was announced in midNovember 2023.
Mr Nicholls said the government would consider whether or not to make flu jabs free again.
“We’ll look at how efficient it’s been, whether more people have taken up the flu jab as a result of it, and make some decisions around it,” he said.
The free flu jab scheme in Queensland cost more than $40m across two years, with vaccination data showing the number of people who received a jab was lower in 2024 than in 2021 – a dip that has been blamed on immunisation fatigue brought on by Covid-19.
In 2024 about 31.5 per cent of Queensland’s population, or 1.75m people, received a flu jab.
Dr Yim, who is based in Hervey Bay, said cost impacts would be a barrier in the current cost-of-living crunch and providing people the option to get the flu jab would ensure those vaccinations can happen.
“Giving accessibility to our community for free flu immunisations is a great initiative, and I know many of my patients love the fact that it is free,” he said.
Queensland had been the only state to provide free flu jabs for all on top of the vulnerable populations paid for under the national immunisation program until Western Australia joined this year.
Only Queensland residents, including those without a Medicare card, could access the state-funded flu jab.
Opposition Treasury spokeswoman and former health minister Shannon Fentiman urged the new government to keep flu vaccinations free.
“Queensland made the decision to make it free for everyone to help families afford the flu shot and to minimise the spread of flu,” she said.
“And it is so important that decision is made quickly so that Queensland can order sufficient stock.”
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