Thousands of Tasmanian immunisation records part of software glitch

If you were unable to access your up-to-date digital immunisation record for weeks, you were not alone — and now the government has questions to answer. THE FALLOUT >>

THE records of 3788 Tasmanians were not automatically uploaded to the Australian Immunisation Register because of a software problem and instead had to be manually entered one by one, a report shows.

The Mercury can reveal that two Services Australia officers were sent to work with the Tasmanian Department of Health at the Royal Hobart Hospital vaccination hub from March 23 to 30 to assist staff with the issues surrounding the digital transmission of vaccination data to the AIR.

This resulted in the painstaking task of manually processing 3788 forms.

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A copy of the official new Covid vaccination passport dubbed VaxCheck. Picture: FILE

The software malfunction and ensuing inconvenience experienced by thousands of Tasmanians, who were unable to access digital immunisation records and vaccination certificates, has been brought to light by Labor senator for Tasmania Catryna Bilyk, who was contacted by multiple members of the public.

The Mercury has seen correspondence between Senator Bilyk and federal Minister for Government Services Linda Reynolds between July 9 and November 18 that confirmed the problem.

After Senator Reynolds admitted the extent of the software malfunction, Senator Bilyk wrote to her on September 14 and on November 15 asking if an investigation had been undertaken to determine whether the problem was attributable to the Tasmanian Department of Health or Services Australia.

Senator Reynolds provided the following written response on November 18: “Services Australia is unable to provide further ­information.

“I recommend writing directly to the Tasmanian Department of Health.”

After four months of correspondence, Senator Bilyk is furious with the response. “(Senator Reynolds) failed to plan and ensure the federal vaccine certificate would work with existing health software for the entire state of Tasmania,” she said.

Opposition spokesman on government services Bill Shorten called for accountability.

“Minister Reynolds needs to reveal who was responsible for this software failure, how many similar failures have occurred around the nat­ion, and what steps have been taken to fix them,” he said.

Senator Reynolds said vaccination providers including state hubs were responsible for uploading immunisation records to the AIR.

A Department of Health spokesman said at the start of the Covid-19 vaccination rollout, the Tasmanian booking system did not have the functionality to upload vaccination records to the AIR, so “Tasmania was data-entering to the AIR”.

“Through the Vaccination Operations Centre in the Australian government Department of Health, we requested … additional assistance to keep pace with the data entry.

“We are further advised by Services Australia that the standard time allowed for recording a vaccination in the AIR is up to 10 days.”

Aged and health care worker Graeme Facy who was one of 3700 Tasmanians affected when vaccination certificates were not automatically updated to the Australian Immunisation Register earlier this year. Picture: Chris Kidd

Hobart aged-care and healthcare services worker Graeme Facy was unable to access his vaccination record for 16 days.

He received his second vaccination dose on June 26 but was not able to access his vaccination certificate through the AIR until July 12.

Mr Facy said it was weeks of back and forward phone calls before the matter was resolved.

“I spent hours during work time trying to sort this out … we are just trying to do the right thing,” he said.

The Health Department said it was aware of a small number of people unable to access their vaccination records.