Victoria’s new Covid vaccine rollout ‘bungle’ uncovered

Concerns have again been raised over Victoria’s vaccine rollout, with a number of vaccinated citizens uncovering a flaw in the state’s vaccine hubs.

Concerns have been raised over Victoria’s vaccine rollout amid claims authorities are failing to properly reconcile vaccination records.

In some instances it is taking months for state-issued vaccinations to be recorded with the federal government.

It has prompted concerns about the state’s ability to properly track second-dose ­requirements and the true number of vaccinations.

In one case, a woman vaccinated at Monash Health in May said the vaccination had still not been recorded with the federal government this week.

She has written to Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley about the issue.

In another case, a woman who recently got the jab at the Royal Exhibition Building had to wait more than three weeks for the immunisation to appear on her Medicare app.

It is understood the issue has come up in a major review of the rollout by the new man in charge, Lieutenant General John Frewen, who is pushing to change reporting processes.

Training for Covid-19 vaccine providers specifies that vaccinations are expected to be reported within 24 hours.

Commonwealth training for Covid-19 vaccine providers specifies that vaccinations are expected to be reported to the Australian Immunisation Register within 24 hours – and no more than 10 business days after the jab is given.

Those details are then listed on a person’s Medicare record.

While most GPs complete the paperwork on the spot, not all state governments are immediately reconciling data from their own vaccine hubs.

This has led to ongoing discrepancies in the daily vaccine numbers released by the ­Victorian and federal governments.

Sources involved in the rollout confirmed the decision of some states to record vaccinations on the register in bulk meant some documentation had slipped through the cracks.

“We are working with states and territories to ensure timely reporting to the AIR, which is managed by Services Australia,” a federal health department spokeswoman said.

“If a person is concerned about their vaccination not being recorded on the AIR, they should talk to the provider in the first instance who can then make the relevant ­updates to the AIR.”

A woman who got the jab at the Royal Exhibition Building recently had to wait more than three weeks for the immunisation to appear on her Medicare app

A Victorian government spokesman said the federal government’s failure to implement a national online booking system was to blame for the recording delays.

“As the commonwealth has not yet implemented its slated national online booking system, there is no single vaccination booking or data collection system across the country,” she said.

“Like other states, Victoria introduced its own Covid-19 vaccination management system to ensure Covid-19 vaccinations are accurately recorded across all our state-run sites.

“Vaccinations at state-based sites are uploaded on to the commonwealth’s Australian Immunisation Register within 24 hours of notification to the Department of Health,” she said.

Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said the delays were not good enough.

“The Andrews Labor government is responsible for Victoria’s vaccine logistics and proper recording to the AIR, so to have bungle after bungle across multiple hospital networks affecting Victorians across the state demonstrates more mismanagement of Covid,” she said.

“Once again, the Andrews Labor government has been caught with a bungled IT program because they wanted to go it alone. It’s Victorians who are the losers due to the ongoing incompetence.”