GP alliance wants COVID-19 shots in all clinics

The Australian General Practice Alliance is calling for COVID-19 vaccinations to be available at every GP clinic.

A staff worker delivers a dose of Covid-19 vaccine to a patient at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. Picture: AFP

The Australian General Practice Alliance is calling for COVID-19 vaccinations to be available at every GP clinic, saying that if ­people are required to visit a practice other than their regulator doctor’s, it may increase vaccine hesitancy.

The federal government is ­accepting expressions of interest from up to 2000 GP clinics to ­administer COVID-19 vaccines from the second phase of the vaccination rollout, where up to seven million Australians, including the elderly and most healthcare workers, will be prioritised.

But the GP Alliance said it was important that all GP clinics were involved in the administration of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

“The Australian General Practice Alliance believes that vaccination by a person’s own GP as part of a holistic and safe primary healthcare approach is the best way to deliver COVID-19 vaccinations, as it is for all other vaccination,” the alliance said.

“The infrastructure, expertise and experience to deliver vaccinations already exists and can be rapidly and safely adapted for this purpose.”

“By using only (select) GP practices, the process will tend to separate most patients from their usual practice, undermining the concept of vaccination at your local GP and a holistic approach to healthcare. Uptake rates are likely to be reduced as patients will be forced to book and attend twice at an unknown practice rather than their own practice.

“This will tend to increase vaccine hesitancy shyness as patients will need to find and register with a new clinic. The more vulnerable older patients are more likely to find this difficult. Reduced vaccination rates of elderly and otherwise vulnerable patients are not in anyone’s interest.”

Scott Morrison said on Monday an extra $1.9bn would be spent on the rollout, with plans to vaccinate the entire population by October.

Australia has invested in 53 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, most of which will be manufactured onshore, 51 million doses of the Novavax vaccine, and 10 million doses of Pfizer vaccine, which will be available from late February.

The government has not announced specific plans for the rollout beyond the involvement of the first 2000 GP clinics that will be administering the AstraZeneca vaccine to priority groups.

The alliance, which represents GP practice owners, said it was concerned the government’s approach to COVID-19 vaccinations proposed in the expression of interest documents required practices to use an “untested centralised booking system” that is incompatible with ordinary GP clinical information systems that log vaccination records. “This will require double entry of patient ­information,” the alliance said.

It also questioned why practices would be required to observe patients for 30 minutes after vaccine injections, double the time for a normal flu injection. “This will make the vaccination at least twice as costly as an influenza vaccine to administer,” it said.

The alliance also questioned the payment structure for GPs, under which practices will be paid $30.75 for the first injection and $24.45 with a $10 additional payment if a patient attends the same practice for both jabs.

Alliance director Mukesh Haikerwal said GPs should be paid a higher rate for each vaccine injection administered.

“I’d call it a cynical move; they know that not everyone will go to the same place twice for each vaccination,” Dr Haikerwal said.

Alliance chair John Deery said that the successful network of GP respiratory clinics set up during the pandemic offered a funding model that could be adapted to the rollout of the vaccinations.