Queensland ready for vaccine rollout despite compensation for doctors still being up in the air

Phase 1B of Queensland’s COVID vaccine rollout kicks off on Monday, with people aged 80 years and over to be offered the jab first, but those in line have been told to be patient following news of a new threat to the rollout.

Queenslanders in line for the second phase of the COVID-19 jab have been urged to be patient as the state’s peak medical body calls for doctors to be properly compensated.

It comes as flooding in New South Wales threatens to delay Monday’s rollout in southern parts of the Sunshine State.

Overnight, Queensland recorded no new locally acquired COVID-19 cases but two in hotel quarantine that were acquired overseas.

The AstraZeneca vaccine, which arrived from overseas by air, is being trucked from Sydney to GP surgeries in regional NSW and parts of Southern Queensland.

The Federal Government was yesterday working with GPs and logistics companies to assess the extent of the disruption, but it’s understood it will not be in a position to reveal the affected locations until today.

 

Around 1000 clinics across the country will join the rollout as Phase 1B kicks off on Monday, with people aged 80 years and over to be offered the jab first.

Australian Medical Association Queensland (AMAQ) president Chris Perry said the public needed to understand it would be a slow rollout, as locally-made vaccine doses become available.

Phase 1B kicks off tomorrow (Monday), with people aged 80 years and over to be offered the jab first.

Professor Perry also said the AMA was lobbying the Federal Government to ensure the “significant cost” and time involved in providing vaccines was “properly compensated” as doctors shouldn’t be expected to take a financial risk.

But a spokesman for Health Minister Greg Hunt said the Government had worked with peak doctor groups to establish a Medicare fee structure to support the GP rollout.

“This includes a combination of MBS rebates and Practice Incentive Payments that cover business and after hours, as well as loading for rural based practices,” he said.

“This flexible model will allow General Practices to determine the best approach to the vaccine rollout for their practice, whilst meeting the national standards and legislation in regards to maintaining patient records and uploading vaccine administration data into the Australian Immunisation Register.”

Brisbane doctor Anuj Gupta said the only way to meet the October target was to administer 180,000 doses every day for the next six months.

Dr Anuj Gupta. Picture: Annette Dew

Dr Gupta, who owns two Brisbane practices including Nundah Village Family Practice, said he only received confirmation earlier this week that he would be expected to start immunising from tomorrow.

“The remuneration for the entire process is about 30 per cent of what it should be because of staffing, human resource, time spent; processing, immunising, monitoring, paper work,” he said.

Dr Gupta, who has been calling for mass immunisation clinics, said the response from the community to get the vaccine had been very reassuring.

“What is imperative is that the Federal and State Governments expedite the roll out when the community is on board,” he said.

Maria Boulton, who owns Family Doctors Plus in Windsor and is Chair of AMAQ’s Council of General Practice, said patients needed to be patient after clinics got inundated with inquiries last week.

But she said GPs were ready.