Queensland's plan to fix federal government’s aged care vaccination bungle
The State Government has been forced to step in and launch its own vaccine blitz due to the Federal Government’s botched rollout that has left vulnerable Queenslanders exposed. VOTE IN OUR POLL
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A vaccination blitz of Queensland aged care workers will be taken on by the state government as it steps up to fix the federal government’s botched vaccine rollout in the sector.
The Federal government on Tuesday was forced to reveal just 8.7 per cent of workers in the sector had received two jabs so far.
The dire figure prompted Victoria, which is grappling with a 54-case outbreak, to announce it would undertake a five-day vaccination blitz from Wednesday by giving aged care workers priority access to jab hubs.
The Courier-Mail understands plans for a similar blitz in Queensland using the state’s existing hospital Pfizer-hub will be finalised in coming days.
Aged care and disability workers will go to the front of Queensland’s COVID vaccine queue as the state takes on the Commonwealth’s slack, Health Minister Yvette D’Ath announced.
Ms D’Ath said she was not interested in blaming anyone for why so many workers were still not inoculated, but said “we can’t wait any longer”.
“I want all of our residential aged care and disability workers vaccinated urgently,” she said.
She called on all aged care and disability workers who had not had at least one jab to immediately register on Queensland’s Health’s website for a vaccine and for their employers to encourage them to do so.
They would be vaccinated at a Queensland Health hub, she said.
“We will put you at the front of the queue ... we will look after you,” she said.
Pfizer will be offered to workers of all ages.
“I want them to get Pfizer because we know you can be fully vaccinated in three weeks,” she said.
“We cannot wait any longer.
“I do not want to risk an aged care worker getting COVID and taking it into an aged care centre and putting at risk the most vulnerable.”
The federal government is facing sustained pressure over its slow and confusing vaccine rollout for aged care workers, who were meant to be fully vaccinated by the end of March.
Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck on Tuesday struggled to give any comprehensive vaccination data for workers in the sector because the government doesn’t have any way to track it as staff are being told to join the general public queue for a jab.
New but incomplete data provided at Senate estimates on Tuesday revealed just 32,833 aged care workers had been fully vaccinated in Australia through the current policy of giving them leftover Pfizer doses when residents are jabbed.
This includes 6789 workers in Queensland.
The looming state takeover of the vaccine rollout in the aged care sector has been called for by the Australian Council of Trade Unions since April, when it wrote to federal government urging them to ask for help to get the rollout “back on track”.
The Aged and Community Services Association, the peak body for the sector, slammed the federal government for attempting to shift the blame to providers or workers.
“Providers have been consistently telling the government that vaccines should be made available in the facilities themselves,” ACSA chair Sara Blunt said
“We want action on vaccines to scale up. If this means using the defence forces that have assisted in remote areas, or bringing in other resources to enable ‘in reach’ workplace vaccinations, then the government should make it happen.”
Queensland’s state-run vaccination program on Tuesday hit a new daily high, administering more than 8000 doses in a 24-hour period — triple the number of jabs being given out just two weeks ago.
But a prominent Gold Coast doctor has said there’s a “lack of clarity” for accessing the Pfizer jab for patients under 50 in the 1b category, who are recommended to get it as desperate residents are arriving at the Gold Coast University Hospital at 4am to line up for the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccination, with some waiting eight hours.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison called on all eligible Australians to come together and get vaccinated in a “Team Australia moment.”
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Originally published as Queensland's plan to fix federal government’s aged care vaccination bungle
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