No mandate as first Tassie 5-11-year-olds get the jab
Proposed changes to the doctor training system are “under-baked” and should be deferred says a leading local organisation ahead of a Senate inquiry. LATEST >>
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PROPOSED changes to the doctor training system are “under-baked” and should be deferred, General Practice Training Tasmania will tell a Senate inquiry into the provision of GPs in rural areas.
In its submission to the inquiry - which starts in Launceston on Monday - GPTT says the Federal Government needs to defer the proposed changes until early 2025.
Other local health professionals, such as the Deloraine and Westbury Medical Centre, have called for more incentives to get doctors into regional and remote areas and to stay.
GPTT said deferring the changes would allow time to properly consult, do detailed preparation work and for the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic to have passed.
“Building a whole new GP training system from scratch when you have one that is currently working makes no sense, particularly at the same time as you are battling the biggest pandemic in a century,” the submission says.
The Tasmanian training organisation is one of nine nationally funded directly by Canberra which has announced it intends transferring the administration and delivery of the Australian General Practice Training program to the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners).
“The current process is under-baked and a rush to implement it now would do serious short and medium-term harm to GP training, at least in Tasmania.”
The Derwent Valley Council said the municipality’s GP workforce had not kept pace with the growing population and incentives to attract more was essential.
“A change to the Modified Monash Model geographical classification system would potentially entice more doctors to establish a viable practice through greater subsidies,” its submission said.
Labor MP Brian Mitchell will tell the inquiry the 26 clinics in his Lyons electorate had experienced moderate or significant difficulty attracting and retaining GPs.
Mr Mitchell said the clinics in the bigger towns reported their books were full for patients and they relied on locums and nursing services to manage their loads.
“Despite Brighton being one of Australia’s fastest growing municipalities, it has recently lost four long-serving GPs across two local practices in the space of a few weeks due to retirements and resignations.. There is little prospect of these losses being replaced with permanent GPs.”
Braddon Liberal MP Gavin Pearce told the inquiry a similar story saying many practitioners had closed their books because of insufficient doctors and NDIS clients and ADF Veterans could not access allied health services despite being referred.
Braddon Greens candidate and local NW doctor Darren Briggs said “if this inquiry is what it’s going to take for our government to listen to health workers then I absolutely welcome it,” Dr Briggs said.
“But let’s not forget the struggles in Tasmania’s rural and regional health system are not new, and they definitely pre-dated Covid.”
‘That wasn’t so bad’: First Tassie 5-11-year-olds get the jab
The state government has ruled out mandating vaccines for children as the rollout for those aged between five and eleven gets underway.
Eight year old Ruby Smith was one of the first children to get her first dose of the vaccine this morning.
“My needle felt cold and it didn’t hurt,” Ruby said.
“That wasn’t so bad.”
Ruby’s mum Tanya said her daughter was nervous but things went smoothly.
“She reacted well, she hasn’t had any reactions,” Ms Smith said.
Ms Smith said it was important for Ruby to get the jab.
“Especially for Ruby a couple of years ago, she was in hospital, she had pneumonia and a tear in her lung, she was in intensive care,” Ms Smith said.
“I was reluctant myself, it’s the unknown but you do what you to keep your child safe.
“I don’t want to be one of those parents who regrets not getting it done and then something happens.”
Tasmania’s vaccination rate for those over the age of twelve sits at over 93 per cent.
As vaccinations open for five to eleven year olds, more than forty per cent of the cohort has been booked in for their first dose.
“I understand very clearly from the briefing I had this morning that before school goes back we are in a position to roll out that jab to all of those eligible children in that cohort before school returns,” Premier Peter Gutwein said.
There are around 45,000 children in the cohort.
Director of Public Health Mark Veitch encouraged parents to book their kids in for a jab, warning complacency could put others at risk.
“While illness is mild in young children, it can occasionally be severe enough to require medical care or hospitalisation,” Mr Veitch said.
“Also those young five and eleven year olds can infect their parents or their young siblings who are too young to be vaccinated.”
The Premier said how kids will stay Covid safe at school will be discussed at national cabinet this week.
“We’ll work with parents and parent group on what school will look like,” he said.
There is one certainty, the vaccine will not be mandatory for children.
“I was written to again this morning by a parent saying this shouldn’t be mandatory,” he said.
“Let me be clear this is not mandatory.”
In the 24 hours until 8pm on Sunday, Tasmania recorded 1218 new cases, with a total of 7917 active cases across the state.
As case numbers continue to rise, the Child Health and Parenting Service, which provides free child health and development assessments for kids under five, is scaling back its service.
For four weeks, most appointments for children six months and older will be cancelled, to allow more nursing staff to assist with the health response.
“The service will continue to offer the opportunity for new parents to participate in an online new parent group and focused breast feeding and peri-natal mental health services as required,” the department announced on its Facebook page.
Children now eligible for vaccine + mask rules for school
PRIMARY school-aged children will be eligible to get vaccinated against Covid-19 from Monday – and Education Minister Sarah Courtney has foreshadowed that children may be asked to wear masks at school when term one begins.
It comes as the state grapples with a surge in Covid infections, recording 1406 new cases on Sunday, bringing the total number of active cases to 7473.
There are 15 people in hospital, but just four are being treated specifically for Covid symptoms.
Meanwhile, an additional 11 positive cases have been recorded on King Island, increasing the total cases there to 92.
As of Monday, about 45,000 Tasmanian children aged 5-11 will be able to receive their first special paediatric dose of the Pfizer vaccine – one-third of the dose size administered to adults – as approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
However, children will have to wait eight weeks between doses, meaning none of the age 5-11 cohort will be fully vaccinated by the time term one begins on February 9.
The Opposition is urging the state government to release any health advice showing that Tasmanian schools will be safe for all kids and staff.
Speaking in Launceston on Sunday, Ms Courtney said about 40 per cent of the 5-11 cohort were already booked in to have their first dose.
“There is plenty of time, however, I would encourage parents to … jump online, call the coronavirus hotline, or call your local GP to make sure that you can get your kid their first vaccination before school starts,” she said.
“I’d like to stress that this is not a mandatory vaccination for young people returning to school. However, we are encouraging it.”
Ms Courtney said there were contingency plans in place for schools in the event of a localised outbreak, and that measures were under consideration to better protect school communities.
She said masks could end up being a key means of combating the spread of Covid-19 in schools – and children as young as five may be asked to wear them.
“That is something that we’ll actively consider as we go back to school,” Ms Courtney said.
“Whatever the circumstance, we’ll make sure that we give parents plenty of notice so that they can plan.”
The Minister did not rule out a shift to remote learning but said the government’s “highest priority” was to ensure that children were able to learn “on-site”. She also said it was her “expectation” that the term one start date would not be deferred.
Allison Turner’s daughter Millie, 5, is booked in to receive her first dose of the vaccine on January 21, which Ms Turner said was a “huge relief”.
“I know it’s not a guarantee that she won’t get it and she won’t pass it on – but we know from the older age groups that (the virus) is less severe and it’s less likely to be passed on (from vaccinated people),” she said.
Ms Turner said Millie, who is in Prep at St Aloysius Catholic College in Blackmans Bay, recognised the seriousness of Covid and knew it was important for her to get vaccinated.
Labor workplace relations spokeswoman Sarah Lovell warned there was “every chance” a Covid outbreak could take hold in a school environment and called on the government to fully explain its rationale for reopening schools when no Tasmanian child would have had the opportunity to be double-jabbed by the beginning of term one.
“The government needs to be pulling out all the stops to ensure that children right across the state can access vaccinations easily, including in regional and remote communities where any potential outbreak in those schools will have a very significant impact on those communities,” she said.
To see a full list of state-run community clinics and to make a booking visit: www.coronavirus.tas.gov.au/booking or call the Public Health Hotline 1800 671 738.
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