GPs to get more COVID vaccines
Some general practices will get triple their current number of weekly vaccines under an increase in allocations announced this week by Health Minister Greg Hunt, just in time to begin vaccinating anyone 50 years and over this month.
About 4,000 general practices that currently get between 50 and 100 doses per week will be eligible to receive an extra 100 doses each week. Supply constraints have meant that most general practices have only been able to offer a small number of doses each week to patients, and many have long waiting lists.
GPs have delivered more than 1.2 million COVID-19 vaccinations and have helped to significantly increase vaccination rates since being progressively brought into the vaccine rollout from late March.
More than half of all COVID-19 vaccines have been delivered by GPs, who are now the backbone of Australia’s COVID-19 vaccination program.
GPs are administering the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is proving to be a very safe and very effective vaccine that is being used in 139 countries around the world.
It is important for people to be able to discuss the benefits and risks of vaccination, including any concerns they may have about the very rare instances of blood clots, and GPs are there to help patients to make well-informed decisions about whether or not they should be vaccinated.
When supply improves, general practice will be able to take even more COVID-19 vaccines, having a demonstrated history of being able to vaccinate patients on a very significant scale.
