Influenza Vaccinations

The Hon. C. BONAROS (14:34): Supplementary: and is the minister aware of situations where GPs have not been able to receive the number of vaccinations requested for their vulnerable group patients, and what is being done to address this?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:35): I think it is important to remind the parliament that the public health clinicians who run our immunisation program are extremely well qualified and able clinicians. They made a decision to bring forward the vaccination program, which of course disrupted the schedules. I think that is part of what we are experiencing at the moment as the distribution is settling down.

In terms of the early vaccinations, I am advised that they were distributed in a way such that not everyone got what they asked for, but to make sure that all service providers got access as early as possible there were caps for the first two weeks of the program only. I am advised that no caps have applied since 18 April.