Influenza Vaccinations

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (14:39): Supplementary question: can the minister explain the process that is involved in ordering vaccines each year?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:39): May I ask the member to clarify: was the member referring to supply from the commonwealth or supply to the immunisation providers?

The Hon. F. Pangallo: Well, from both.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: As I said earlier, there's a national program for immunisation and the commonwealth manages the contracts and we order through those contracts. In terms of distribution, my understanding is that there is a network of immunisation providers, from recollection I think it's about 800, and on a two-weekly cycle they lodge an order and if they require vaccines outside of the two-week cycle then they can put in special orders.