Vaccinations for children to start on Monday, but some regional GPs have supply issues

Children aged 5 to 11 will be able to get their first COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, but some regional medical centers have still not received their supplies.

Albury Wodonga Family Medicine has about 70 children booked for Monday, but their vaccine delivery has not arrived.

The owners said they will be heading to the Victoria area today to pick up vaccines at another clinic, after calling everyone they know throughout the morning.

“This will keep us going until Monday so we don’t have to call all the patients and go through the rescheduling rig,” said co-owner Leon Morgiewicz.

“It was just lucky that I knew someone and they didn’t have a dedicated clinic early next week and were able to give me theirs.

“Once I have my delivery, I will return the doses I took from them.”

Mr Morgiewicz said that every time he ordered vaccines, the courier company texted him the day before telling him his delivery was due to arrive. He hasn’t heard from them.

“If I hadn’t been able to go around the ring, we would have had an absolutely horrible Monday,” said Mr Morgiewicz.

“Our administrative staff should have called all the parents and reprogrammed, we would have a doctor with an empty book not seeing any other patients she could have seen that same day, and a lot of children who needed vaccines would not receive. not their vaccinations. It’s a shemozzle.

Supply and demand

In eastern Victoria, vaccine availability is mixed, with half of the GP clinics the CBA called reporting supplies were adequate and others reporting shortages.

Gippsland regional public health unit operations director Annelies Titulaer said its seven state-run vaccination clinics in the region were well stocked and appointments were available.

David Monash of the Wellington Respiratory Clinic in Sale said they had only received half of the 200 doses they ordered, with 90 children on the waiting list for vaccinations as of Monday.

“We were hoping to have a few more because we could have more kids that way,” Dr Monash said.

“We think we’ll have another 200 next week.”

The Echuca Moama family medical practice said it received its first 100 doses of Pfizer vaccine, to be shared between the two medical clinics in the Twin Cities on the New South Wales border.

Receptionist Stephanie Owen said the expedition was supposed to last a fortnight and that they had already placed their next order of 200 doses – 100 doses for each clinic.

And in Horsham, pharmacist Cobie McQueen said her pharmacist would not be handing out vaccines to children because staff were already inundated with requests from adults looking for booster shots.

“Vaccine appointments are booked until February, and at the biggest clinics in town it’s the same,” Ms. McQueen said.

Dr Monash in Sale had another request from the community: teddy bears.

He said they already had several “trauma teddy bears” on hand for young children if they got upset during the vaccination process.

But he was appealing to “all the craft groups out there” who wanted to help donate more stuffed animals for the kids.

“It’s much better than a pacifier,” said Dr. Monash.

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