No one to jab: ‘Thousands’ of doses of COVID vaccine on ice

Thousands of doses of COVID vaccines are sitting in immunisation centres across Sydney, with doctors and nurses struggling to fill bookings.

Thousands of doses of vaccines are sitting in fridges across Sydney, with doctors and nurses unable to fill patient bookings.

So few patients have turned up to one centre that it has asked the Department of Health to open up the vaccination program to ordinary people in other categories of the planned rollout.

Dr Jamal Rifi has about 500 doses of COVID-19 vaccine … but no one to vaccinate. Picture: Tim Hunter

A doctor at a southwestern Sydney clinic says patients have become so fearful about the AstraZeneca vaccine that the length of consultations have doubled — with many patients not proceeding with a vaccination.

Health authorities hope the confirmation of a “likely” link between the ­AstraZeneca vaccine and the death of a 48-year old woman last week will not exacerbate the problem.

Belmore Medical Respiratory Clinic principal Dr Jamal Rifi said he had cut down the number of staff on duty from a GP and four nurses, “sometimes five”, down to a GP and two nurses, “sometimes one”.

Dr Rifi said he had been ordering 500 doses to be able to vaccinate 80 people a day.

After the federal government changed its advice about the AstraZeneca vaccine last week, patient bookings had dropped off, with about 20 booked for a jab last Thursday.

While some GPs had complained about vaccine supply, Dr Rifi said his problem was one of “patient supply”.

“In terms of vaccine supply, in my case I have no issues. I have ample vaccines. I have about 500. I don’t have the people to vaccinate,” he said.

“Our numbers went down by 50 per cent since last Friday. We used to see about 70-80 a day, now just 30-40. Today, I vaccinated probably about 20.

“I spent three weeks preparing to be ready. We were busy in the first two weeks, slower in the third week, and fourth week hardly anyone is coming.”

Of those who did come, Dr Rifi said they were armed with so many questions that the time spent with a patient had risen from around 10-12 minutes to almost half an hour.

Dr Rifi believed better messaging was needed urgently.

Over in Sydney’s north, a staff member at the Northshore Roseville COVID-19 Vaccine Centre said the purpose-built clinic had “thousands” of vaccines.

The centre had ordered enough doses to be able to vaccinate around 1000 people per day, a staffer said. Instead, it was vaccinating just “50-60”.

With so few patients, the centre wrote to the department a few days ago to ask if it could vaccinate people outside of Phase 1b.

“We contacted the department a few days ago, but they said we could instead reduce our hours,” the staffer said. “We have so many vaccines we don’t know what to do with them.”

Among those waiting to learn if they will be prioritised are the Australian Olympic team athletes, with Sports Minister Richard Colbeck confirming the federal government was “considering” the request, including the “potential for exposure of the Olympic team to COVID-19 whilst at the Olympic Games.”

Sporting officials fear the government will not offer jabs to athletes after criticism of the proposal.

A health department spokesperson said clinics were able to order from 50 to 2000 doses per week, with the department allocating a maximum weekly vaccine allocation per site.

Detailed modelling had been conducted based on the number of vaccines available, the number of practices eligible, the locations and Phase 1b population density, the size of the practice and the practice’s estimate of their capacity, the spokesperson said.

“The allocation provided to each site will be reviewed as vaccine availability increases and on the basis of available data on utilisation and demand across the system,” the spokesperson said.

“The department is working closely with the states and territories to ensure comprehensive coverage.”

The latest vaccination figures released on Saturday showed more than 53,000 people were vaccinated on April 16, down from 61,000 the day before.

In total, almost 1.5 million doses have been administered across Australia.

The NSW government is expected to agitate for greater control over the rollout when national cabinet meets on Monday.