Community helps Sydney patients charged for Covid vaccine by GP

A community has banded together after a health care clinic charged an eye-watering fee for residents in a Covid-ravaged area to get the jab.

More than 400 Sydney residents who were wrongfully charged for their Covid jab at a GP clinic are now fully vaccinated thanks to the efforts of local community leaders.

Blessed Healthcare in Campsie was ordered by health authorities to refund 465 patients who paid hundreds of dollars for their first Pfizer vaccine.

Knowing that many of those residents did not speak fluent English and struggled to navigate the health system, Belmore GP Jamal Rifi joined with the Chinese Australians Services Society and Labor state Canterbury MP Sophie Cotsis to help get jabs in arms.

Belmore GP Jamal Rifi at the COVID-19 testing clinic he has set up next to his regular practice. Picture: Britta Campion

Ms Cotsis wrote to NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard and his federal counterpart Greg Hunt to secure second doses for the patients who had been left in limbo after Blessed Healthcare was axed from the vaccine rollout.

“It is a major relief their second vaccinations have been provided, which will ensure these people are protected from the current Delta Covid-19 outbreak,” she said.

“These people were only trying to do the right thing in safeguarding themselves and our community from coronavirus. They should never have been put in the position of missing the window of getting their second jab.”

Translators from the Chinese Australian Services Soci­ety and staff from Ms Cotsis’ electoral office used popular Chinese messaging platform WeChat to spread the word to those who had been impacted.

Dr Rifi has opened his clinic on two Saturdays to deliver the patients their second shots in the advised time frame and will open again on September 4.

“Our aim is to vaccinate as many as we can in the shortest possible time,” he said.

“The volunteer interpreters helped us greatly because we didn’t have to call any trans­lators. It made the process shorter, easier, and helped people get their informed consent properly.”