News

Coronavirus immunisation update

Many of you have already been enquiring regarding details of the COVID vaccine and for a small number who are in the Group 1A rollout group, may have been contacted by your workplace regarding access to the vaccine, which will only be provided through designated hubs/workplace programs.

For all patients, the best way to establish which group you will fall into is by using the following link: 

https://covid-vaccine.healthdirect.gov.au/eligibility

Most people are expected to receive the Astra Zeneca vaccine which requires 2 doses 12 weeks apart.
The next group to start receiving the vaccine some time in March (designated GROUP 1B in the rollout), will include the following:
- Adults >70 years old
- Other health care workers (not in group 1A)
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people >55 years old
- Adults with an underlying medical condition, including those with a disability (use the eligibility link above to find a list of conditions/ proof will need to be provided)
- Critical and high risk workers including defence, police, fire, emergency services and meat processing.

Our clinic will not be providing the vaccine in this phase of the rollout. We may be able to provide the vaccine at a later stage. We appreciate this may be disappointing to many of our patients but the required logistics of immunising large numbers of patients safely, including those from other clinics was not considered possible in the space available without severely compromising our ability to provide routine medical care.
We do welcome patients who feel they need to seek further advise regarding the vaccine, including any concerns relevant to underlying medical conditions through the clinic. Some patients may also require proof of their medical condition to take to their vaccination.
Once this phase begins, there will be online information (Health Direct’s National Health Services Directory) to indicate where your closest vaccination centre is and how to go about booking this.

There are specific guidelines around the timing of a COVID vaccine related to the Influenza vaccine- they should be at least 2 weeks apart.

Influenza vaccine:

Our over-65 'flu vaccines arrived this week, and hopefully those for under-65s will follow arrive soon.

The vaccines come in batches and can either be given at the time of another appointment or through a dedicated Flu Clinic. The Flu Clinics will start to be booked soon. Please be patient as we are limited by how many vaccines we receive at a time.

Patients who are also due for other vaccines such as the Pneumococcal or Shingles (Varicella) vaccine may be able to receive these at the same time.

Health / My Health Record

We upload Ehealth / My Health Records if you would like to have one. Please discuss these with your doctor. Please note that they will not be uploaded without your approval.

Immunisation

There are new changes to the Immunisation Schedule for children if you would like to discuss these with your doctor or one of our nurses. There are also several childhood meningitis immunisations that are not on the Childhood schedule that you may wish to purchase for your child.