COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Australia via GP clinics dogged by lack of supplies

A growing number of Sydney GPs have stopped taking bookings for patients wanting a COVID-19 jab because of a lack of supplies.

Anxious vaccine recipients have been told they may have to wait for as long as a year for the COVID-19 jab as a growing number of Sydney GPs refuse to take patient bookings for the vital shot because of a lack of supplies.

It comes as Premier Gladys Berejiklian revealed she had written to Prime Minister Scott Morrison asking for NSW play a bigger role in the inoculation program after the issue blew up this week.

Dr Amandeep Hansra, at Bondi Doctors, with their delivery of the Covid-19 Astra Zenica vaccine for this week. Picture: Justin Lloyd

Ms Berejiklian said so far the state had administered 156,000 jabs and had been ­assigned to administer 300,000 vaccinations — and the federal Government ­needed to accept help.

“Let us help you,” she said. “We want to make sure there is a hope of reaching the October deadline.

“When we complete the 300,000, we are offering to do tens of thousands a week more to support their efforts.”

In Sydney, empty vaccine fridges are a common sight in doctor surgeries with many GPs reporting their deliveries amount to just 50 shots a week and are being used up immediately, despite having hundreds — and even thousands — of patients on their books.

Under the current phase 1b roll out, which kicked off 11 days ago, GPs were given the green light to begin immunising 6.1 million eligible elderly citizens over 70, critical workers and those with underlying conditions.

Dr Charlotte Hespe, of Glebe Family Medical Practice, which has no Covid-19 vaccines. Picture: Justin Lloyd

It is understood there are 2000 GPs listed and the government will get to 5000 in the next fortnight, after which supplies can be increased.

But patients are reporting being mired in red tape, while others wanting to book a jab encounter the message “Next booking: none currently available” on the federal government’s official vaccine website.

In Sydney’s south, more than half of the 20 clinics suggested by the government’s website were unavailable for a booking, and the majority warned of waits of over a month.

One clinic at Ramsgate stated that the wait for non-­client patients “was a year”.

Patients were told that was how long it would take to get on their books as a new patient and the clinic was “prioritising” its own clients.

Chartered professional eng­ineer David Burger, from Mount Colah, has chronic ­myeloid leukaemia and is eligible to be vaccinated — but he also can’t make a booking.

He’s caught up in the system that requires a “Patient History Report” from your current GP, but his GP retired a few years back and he sees a specialist every three months.

“When I call a COVID GP outlet, they say they will only do their clients,” he said.

“It’s not possible for me to make a booking.

“As a high risk person, I now have to wait until June to maybe have a chance at getting all this paperwork together — trust our top-heavy government to red tape it.”

Port Stephens based Nelson Plaza Clinic features a newly purchased Covid-19 vaccine fridge waiting for supplies.

Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Dr Karen Price said GPs were “ready, willing and able”.

“We’ve got the capacity we just need the supply,” she said. “Clearly there hasn’t been enough doses to spread around.”

At the Bondi Doctors, clinic director Daniel Perry said his allocation was 50 doses a week despite having “a cap­acity to immunise about 2000, 2500 patients a week”.

“We did a lot of work in the lead-up, bought extra equipment, made physical changes to help more patients flow through, so it was very disappointed to be allocated such a small amount of vaccine.”

Dr Amandeep Hansra from the same practice said they had willing and keen patients “coming in their droves”, and “we just need to co-ordinate better to get the country vaccinated”.  

The fridge belonging to Glebe GP Dr Charlotte Haspe was also empty on Thursday as her clinic waited on getting some new supplies in.

“We’ve got lots of people ready and waiting for those vaccines,” she said. “But we are taking the position that no ­appointments are made without a vaccine in the fridge.”

An empty fridge at an Inner City Sydney GP practice, with only one box of vaccines left for waiting patients. Supplied

Port Stephens’ Nelson Plaza clinic director Anna ­Davidson said she could not understand why the federal government had not used the “excellent” existing supply and distribution chains for vaccines already in place run by the State Government. Courier drivers and logistics were ­already well set up: “It would have been a lot smoother.”

Based on current roll out rates, it would take eight years to inoculate all the patients on its books, she said.

Australia is now at a total of 744,328 vaccinations an increase of 73,979 over the past 24 hours, the largest daily increase on record.

The European Union blocked 3.1 million AstraZeneca doses coming into Australia over January to March, forcing the Morrison government to reset its initial national vaccine target of four million shots by April 1.