Coronavirus: Vaccine bungle at Doutta Galla aged-care home in Melbourne hot zone

A nursing home caught in a Covid-19 outbreak during Victoria’s second wave is still waiting for vaccinations after a commonwealth bungle, nurses say.

Doutta Galla aged-care home in Footscray, Melbourne, recorded nine coronavirus deaths at the peak of last year’s outbreak. Picture: Daniel Pockett

A Melbourne nursing home caught in a deadly Covid-19 outbreak during Victoria’s second wave is still waiting for residents to be vaccinated because of a commonwealth scheduling bungle, nurses at the facility say.

Doutta Galla aged-care home in inner-west Footscray, which recorded nine coronavirus deaths at the peak of last year’s wave, was scheduled to have the first doses of vaccines administered from May 17 to May 28.

Registered nurse Akash Patel, who works at the facility, said staff booked in flu shots for residents for May 2 to allow a 14-day ­window between the flu jab and the Covid-19 vaccination as ­according to Department of Health guidelines.

However, they were contacted by Healthcare Australia – a commonwealth contractor helping to administer vaccines – which said the Covid-19 vaccines had been brought forward to May 12.

Mr Patel said staff realised the last-minute change conflicted with the flu jab timeline and the vaccine rollout in the home was pushed back.

“We are very disappointed,” Mr Patel said.

“Residents have been waiting for a really long time, and by now they should have had it.

“We would have held the flu vaccine until people had been given the Covid vaccine.”

Aged-care facilities are in strict lockdown – visitors are banned except in end-of-life cases, under restrictions that came into force at 11.59pm on Thursday – in a bid to avoid a repeat of the deadly toll at nursing homes in last year’s second wave.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Picture: Gary Ramage

Scott Morrison moved to allay concerns about the safety of aged-care residents in Victorian nursing homes on Thursday after it was ­revealed that 29 facilities were still waiting to receive their first vaccine doses.

Labor seized on the sluggish rollout and questioned whether the Morrison government had done enough to vaccinate vulnerable Australians despite the deaths of 655 aged-care residents in Victoria’s second wave last year.

The Prime Minister said his government would do everything it could to protect the lives and livelihoods of Australians as he ­assured the public all Victorians in aged-care facilities would receive at least one dose by the end of the weekend – six weeks later than planned under the commonwealth’s initial timeframe.

“We will do everything we can to protect the lives and livelihoods of Australians … we have lost 910 souls to Covid already during the course of this pandemic,” he said.

Later in question time, Health Minister Greg Hunt said people in a further seven facilities had been vaccinated, leaving 16 nursing homes in Victoria unvaccinated.

“There are 598 residential aged-care facilities in Victoria; 582 of those have received at least their first dose, seven are to receive their first dose today and the remaining nine tomorrow,” he said.

“That will bring the residential aged-care facility within our home state of Victoria to 100 per cent.”

Opposition aged-care spokesman Mark Butler said the government was misleading the public by describing the administration of just one dose as “vaccinated” when two doses were required for full protection.

“Given the Prime Minister knows full well that these vaccines require two doses, why does he continue to use such misleading language about such a serious public health issue?” he asked.

Mr Morrison said he was ­concerned by the framing of the question and “one of the great ­attractions of the AstraZeneca vaccine” was that the first dose provided a significant level of protection against serious disease.

The Doutta Galla facility is ­expected to receive its first doses on Friday.