States seize on doctor’s vaccine dose bungle
The PM faces a blow to public confidence after two aged-care residents were given four times the correct dose of the Pfizer jab.
Scott Morrison faces a blow to public confidence in the national vaccine rollout after an investigation was called into how a Brisbane doctor injected two aged-care residents with four times the recommended dose of the Pfizer jab without completing his mandatory training.
The incident on day three of the national rollout reignited tensions with the Labor states and fresh demands from Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk for an emergency meeting of national cabinet to discuss vaccine protocols in aged-care facilities.
“None of this is good enough and the federal government must explain itself,” Ms Palaszczuk said. “I want to know what training is provided to the people the federal government is employing to administer the vaccines in our aged-care facilities.”
Federal opposition aged-care and health spokesman Mark Butler sounded the alarm on public confidence in the rollout being undermined, as he backed Queensland’s push for an urgent meeting of national cabinet as a “reasonable call”.
“Public confidence in this vaccine rollout is crucial, and to maintain that confidence, the government simply has to do better than this,” Mr Butler said.
West Australian Premier Mark McGowan was also concerned about confidence in the commonwealth rollout, which will need to capture vulnerable indigenous people in more than 150 remote communities in his state. “I just urge the commonwealth government to get on top of this and make sure they keep public confidence in the vaccination program,” he said.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd has been charged with investigating how a Brisbane-based GP was able to administer Pfizer doses to an 88-year-old man and 94-year old woman at the Holy Spirit Home in Carseldine on Tuesday morning without completing compulsory training.
The doctor was part of a small team from private contractor Healthcare Australia that visited the facility and was the only doctor in the group responsible for administering the injections. He has since been stood down and faces the prospect of regulatory action from the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.
Healthcare Australia, which provides surge workers to help administer the COVID-19 jabs, has been given a warning and faces the prospect of having its contract terminated.
The pair who received the increased dose were among 95 per cent of residents at the Holy Spirit Home, run by St Vincent’s Care Services, who agreed to be vaccinated on Tuesday morning.
A source said staff at the home were shocked when the GP left the facility immediately after a nurse alerted him to the error.
Staff were initially affronted by his “brusque” attitude when preparing the residents for the vaccines, the source said, and the doctor had not abided by “open disclosure” requirements in which a practitioner is required to discuss with a patient incidents that may have resulted in harm while receiving health care. Instead, the remaining Healthcare Australia staff and the nurses at the home were left to tell the elderly patients what had happened.
Health Minister Greg Hunt was forced to correct the record on Wednesday after he erroneously told parliament the GP who administered the incorrect dosage had been trained properly.
“The revised advice is that, on further investigation Healthcare Australia, has now advised that the doctor had not completed the required training,” Mr Hunt said.
“This is being investigated by Healthcare Australia. Healthcare Australia has advised that all other Healthcare Australia immunisers have completed the training. Healthcare Australia has also advised that this doctor has not been involved in the vaccine rollout in any other facilities. Given this ... I apologise to the House.”
The Australian was unable to contact the doctor on Wednesday but has established that about 15,000 healthcare professionals have completed the mandatory training to administer the vaccine.
The online training, which takes three to four hours to finish and was developed with the commonwealth, includes six core training modules. Additional modules are required to administer specific vaccines once they receive approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration. Health professionals who complete the modules must also receive state accreditation to be able to administer the vaccines.
The Department of Health issued a statement saying it was “concerned at this serious breach of protocol”. It said “misleading information” had been provided by Healthcare Australia in the form of incorrect assurances on Wednesday morning that the GP had completed the required vaccination training.
Ms Palaszczuk said she would write to Scott Morrison seeking an urgent meeting to discuss immunising elderly Australians across the nation’s aged-care facilities. She said the federal government was using private contractors to deliver the vaccine, and it was only a nurse who noticed that the doctor was delivering the vaccine incorrectly that stopped further overdoses.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister said Mr Morrison agreed the incident was unacceptable, which was why Professor Kidd was investigating. “The doctor has been stood down from the vaccination program. If further regulatory action is recommended, that advice will be followed in full,” the spokesman said.
“There is already a national cabinet meeting scheduled for Friday, 5 March and matters such as this are rightly managed by the medical experts through the AHPPC.”
The 88-year-old man was admitted to hospital on Tuesday afternoon as a precaution under advice from his personal doctor while the woman was admitted to hospital on Wednesday morning after spending the night at the aged care home. Neither has shown any adverse reaction to the extra dosage and authorities were confident there would not be any negative side-effects.
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