Coronavirus: Doctors up in arms as kids’ rollout hits sticking point

Doctors demand urgent changes to the children’s vaccine rollout, as many GPs can’t obtain adequate supplies or cope with demand.

The queue starts here: five to 11-year-olds line up for their Covid jab at Sunshine Hospital vaccination hub in Melbourne’s northwest on Monday. Picture: David Caird

Doctors are demanding urgent changes to the children’s vaccine rollout, with many GPs unable to obtain adequate supplies or to cope with demand, despite reassurances from federal and state health authorities that enough doses are available.

Covid-19 vaccine taskforce Commander Lieutenant General John Frewen said there were 800,000 pediatric doses in the system at chemists, GPs and state-run hubs – “absolutely more than enough” doses to get every five to 11-year-old vaccinated with their first dose before they went back to school.

Doctors believe too many doses have been given to state hubs when most parents want their children vaccinated by their own GP. Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Karen Price said there needed to be “a recalibration”, with some GPs getting only 50 or 100 doses a week. “Whilst from the top down there appears to be enough doses, from the bottom up there needs to be some recalibration about the way it’s distributed, and it would be ideal if local areas could co-­operate in terms of sharing doses for where the demand is,” Dr Price said.

In addition, vaccinating a five- or six-year old child takes on average at least double the time it needs to vaccinate an adult.

“We don’t want to traumatise children, so we do have to take time,” Dr Price said.

For Tayla Borrill, 11, who ­received her first dose on Monday in Sydney, the whole process was painless – despite some nerves.

“It’s pretty cool,” she said. “I wanted to do it so I could protect my family, and I was a bit nervous because I thought it might hurt, but it was a small pinch and after that it was all right.”

Tayla Borrill with nurse Sarah Pan and mother Penny. Picture: Jane Dempster

While GPs have administered most Covid vaccinations across the country, many were already struggling to keep up with demand for boosters after the ­recommended interval was shortened to four months, just at the point many were scaling back ­activity and taking leave over the Christmas break.

Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid said “something needs to change” as the current plan was not ­working. “We’ve been predicting for months that GPs would bear the brunt of the kids’ vaccination program because a lot of young children are quite hesitant around vaccines (and) parents want them to occur in the trusted environment of the general practice rather than in a big mass vaccination centre. So we would certainly support GPs getting more vaccine rather than the state hubs.

“The experience GPs are reporting to us is that they’re really struggling to get them in any timely manner, which means we may be nowhere near two million kids vaccinated by the time they go back to school.”

The NSW government says about 63,000 children aged between 5 and 11 will be vaccinated in the state this week, as Premier Dominic Perrottet dismissed claims parents were struggling to find bookings for children, saying he had heard “mixed stories”.

“There are many avenues available. I spoke to somebody this morning, he made a booking just yesterday for the child to be vaccinated and received an ­appointment tomorrow,” he said.

Scott Morrison told parents they should shop around to find a shot for their kids. “There are 6000 places where people can go and get those children’s vaccines,” the Prime Minister said. “So if you can’t get it from where you would normally go, know that there are 5999 more places where those vaccines are on the shelves.”

When The Australian contacted GP clinics on Monday to ask whether they were administering Covid-19 vaccines to five to 11-year-olds, only six out of 22 said they were running children’s clinics on the first day of the rollout. Many had not yet received their delivery of paediatric doses or were planning to run their first clinic for children at a later date.

One clinic doing vaccinations, Alfords Point Medical Practice in Sydney’s south, had been inundated with calls from parents looking to book in their children for their first dose, said practice manager Kim Baker. “It’s a crazy time – to say we’re really busy is an understatement. One week we’re told we are not going to get our supply, and we had to cancel hundreds of people and move them around, then the government says we’re getting extra vaccines this week.”

In Western Australia, Premier Mark McGowan said the rollout had been complicated by a lack of promised vaccine supply from the federal government.