Aged care staff left exposed as vaccine rollout hits another snag

Despite promises to deliver vaccines in the workplace to tens of thousands of critical aged care staff, they’ve now been told to join the queue. 

Tens of thousands of critical aged care staff have been told to join the queue to get their coronavirus vaccine at GP clinics or state-run vaccination hubs, with government documents revealing plans to deliver the jab in their workplaces have hit another snag. 

There are an estimated 318,000 aged care and disability care staff across the country, but the latest data available shows just 37,000 have been vaccinated — all of them with leftover doses as residents received Pfizer jabs.

The government, in a tender document released in March, had originally planned for the “safe, targeted and timely administration” of the vaccine for aged care staff with AstraZeneca to be done by late May.

But medical advice that led to the government deciding those aged under 50 should get the Pfizer vaccine instead of the AstraZeneca jab forced the Health Department to redraw the tender and scrap the timeline.

Federal Government documents reveal it is now unlikely residential aged care staff can access the jab at their workplace until the latter half of June.

Now, residential aged care facilities who want to sign up to vaccinate their staff in-house have until the end of May to submit a tender and the government wants the rollout of jabs to start “ideally” three weeks after a contract is signed.

In the meantime, residential aged care staff are being told to join the general queue and call their GP to get the AstraZeneca jab if they are aged 50 or older or head to a state-run vaccination clinic or wait for one of 13 “pop-up” Pfizer hubs if they are below 50.

Vaccinations for Over 50s has kicked off across the country. Here people line up to receive their jab at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. Picture: David Crosling

Details for only four “pop-up” Pfizer hubs have been released — and all are in Sydney, with the first opening on Monday.

Leading Age Services Australia chief executive Sean Rooney said the rollout had been “inadequate” and “too slow” in the sector, especially for staff, and had failed to prioritise the most vulnerable.

He said the aged care workforce should be vaccinated at their place of work.

“We have said the vaccination program has been inadequate, too slow and fails to prioritise the most vulnerable in our society,” Mr Rooney said.

“The care of older Australians depends on the workforce and it is essential that the rollout does prioritise them in the way the strategy indicates.”

The Health Department did not provide a timeline of when they expected all aged care staff to be vaccinated when asked.

Meanwhile, more than 5.7 million Australians aged 50 to 69 became eligible to get the AstraZeneca jab on Monday under the government’s fast forward of Phase 2a.

The few Commonwealth-funded vaccination clinics open in Queensland during the Labour Day public holiday — including the one in Slacks Creek — were awash with bookings from those eager to be jabbed.

Nurse Luna Reisenbauer gives Clyde Riches, 69, his Covid jab at Slacks Creek Respiratory Clinic. Picture: Nigel Hallett

Clyde Riches, 69, booked in to get his AstraZeneca jab at the clinic that day and received the jab in the late afternoon.

The slow take-up in Queensland due to the public holiday was in stark contrast to scenes in Melbourne and Sydney.

Around 200 people eagerly awaited their jab at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre hub on Monday morning, undeterred by the long queues which almost stretched outside of the facility.

Health officials at the site were pleased with the progress, but acknowledged the wait times were longer than anticipated.

“That just means we will have to plan better for tomorrow and the days ahead, “said Dr Shazeea Mohamed Ali, one of two doctors supervising the rollout at the centre.

The latest vaccination data shows 473,522 vaccine doses have been administered in Queensland since the rollout began, 56 per cent of those via primary care providers, which include GP clinics and respiratory clinics.

Originally published as Aged care staff left exposed as vaccine rollout hits another snag