NDIS participants to get Covid-19 vaccine under new booking system

NDIS participants should find it easier to get a Covid-19 vaccine under a new booking system as the government scrambles to fix its deficient rollout.

NDIS participants should find it easier to get a Covid-19 vaccine appointment through their local pharmacy under a new booking system as the government scrambles to fix its deficient rollout.

The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) and The Pharmacy Guild Australia have joined forces in a bid to lift the poor vaccinate rate in this group.

NDIS participants and providers will receive an easy access link or QR code for booking, through direct NDIA communications the Minister for the NDIS Senator Linda Reynolds announced.

“This important partnership with the Pharmacy Guild will make it easier for participants who can, and choose, to be vaccinated to book and receive that vaccination, knowing they are supported in doing so,” Minister Reynolds said.

Pharmacy Guild of Australia National President Trent Twomey said community pharmacists were readily accessible in local areas, highly skilled and well equipped to answer questions.

More than 3,500 community pharmacies begin to receive stocks of the Moderna vaccine this month, with one million doses expected to be available from community pharmacies next month – on top of existing Astra Zeneca supplies.

People with a disability living in shared accommodation were meant to be given the highest priority along with aged care residents in the vaccine rollout.

However, their care was later deprioritised by the government which did not inform the public of the change and fewer people in this group are now vaccinated than those in the general population.

This is even though a person’s disability is likely to put them at greater risk from a Covid infection.

Seven months after the vaccination rollout began people on the NDIS are also less likely to have received a vaccine than the general population.

The Disability Royal Commission earlier this week released a scathing report in which it declared the federal health department’s rollout of vaccines to people with a disability was ‘seriously deficient’.

It said state governments should not lift lockdowns until all people with disability had the opportunity to be fully vaccinated.

More than 77.3 per cent of all Australians have received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine compared to just 64.8 per cent of NDIS participants.

Over half, 53.4 per cent of all Australians have received two doses of a Covid vaccine compared to just 46.2 per cent of people on the NDIS.

Among people with a disability living in shared accommodation 75 per cent have now received a single dose and 67 per cent have had two doses.

Workers in the sector are less likely to have been vaccinated than the general population.

It comes as Australia’s disability sector is a Covid-19 time bomb, with thousands of deaths likely when Sydney and Melbourne lift lockdowns, advocates say.

The shockingly slow rollout of coronavirus jabs to National Disability Insurance Scheme participants has left more than 100,000 people at risk.

Of the highest risk NDIS participants living in residential accommodation, only 74.9 per cent have had their first dose, compared with 85.7 per cent for first doses in New South Wales, according to September 27 figures.

Donna Bartho-Jones with her son Jake Jones, 20, who lives with multiple disabilities, at home in Narraweena. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

Sydney’s lockdown is on track to end for vaccinated residents on October 11, when the 70 per cent two-dose target is reached.

Sam Connor, of People With Disability Australia, said the vaccine rollout for vulnerable NDIS participants was a serious concern.

“There are going to be thousands of people dying,” she said.

Australia’s vaccine rollout boss Lt Gen John Frewen had a meeting with the disability sector on August 11.

But Ms Connor said more needed to be done urgently to get rates higher before Sydney and Melbourne reopened.

“People with Down syndrome are 36 times more likely to die of Covid-19,” she said.

“Some people with a disability need to have a third dose to get enough immunity.

“If we are going to open the door even if you didn’t have deaths, there would be a high probability that the health system will be overwhelmed.”

People with a disability accounted for six in 10 deaths in the UK’s coronavirus waves in 2020, with more than 30,000 deaths.

Vaccines keep people out of intensive care units and prevent deaths, but they are only about 56 per cent effective at reducing the spread of the virus.

Sydney’s case numbers were likely to increase once it reopens, with visitors to the home, one of the main super spreader activities.

Opposition NDIS spokesman Bill Shorten said people with disabilities were “terrified.”

“Many people with disability are unable to leave their homes to get tested and vaccinated against Covid-19 due to mobility or transport limitations, or voluntary isolation in response to the disproportionate risks of Covid-19,” he said.

“What is going to happen to these people when Australia opens up and they are unvaccinated against the deadly Delta strain that is killing people each day?”

An unvaccinated 23-year-old NDIS participant in Wyong, New South Wales, died from Covid-19.

The slow rollout of the vacine program has left NDIS participants at risk. Picture: Richard Walker

She had been offered a vaccine, highlighting the challenges of explaining the benefits of jabs to the hard to reach group.

Donna Jones, whose son Jake lives in Sydney with multiple disabilities, said the NDIS “failed to understand” the complexity of administering the Covid vaccine to the vulnerable.

“It fell short of showing understanding by the government in the day-to-day difficulties and inequity faced by disabled people and their families,” she said.

Mrs Jones spent weeks in August trying to secure her 20-year-old son a jab.

“We were told that they couldn’t provide a ‘safe room’ and that they couldn’t risk his (Jake’s) or the public or the staffs’ safety,” she said.

“It was left to me to garnish an appointment with a GP. Our practitioners were not administering the vaccine (at the time).

“Two weeks ago a registered NDIS provider called to state that they were about to advocate for some clients to get home-vaccine appointments.

“I responded that it’s entirely overdue.”

NDIS Minister Linda Reynolds claimed that people with disability Australia were less likely to catch the virus than in other parts of the world.

“Through the course of the pandemic, Australia has seen the number of Covid cases for NDIS participants per 100,000 people, much lower than for the general population,” her office said in a statement.

“In this context, we owe a debt of gratitude to our carers, health workers, NDIS provider and support community for ensuring that our most vulnerable Australians are protected.”

Originally published as NDIS participants to get Covid-19 vaccine under new booking system