• Leading healthcare representatives have called for patience and calm, after yesterday’s Federal Government vaccine booking website launch saw clinics inundated with booking requests they could not accept.
• Health Minister Greg Hunt today disputed claims the launch was troubled, saying every clinic listed on the site has placed vaccine orders.
• But a further 100 Commonwealth-backed vaccine clinics will soon supplement the rollout plans, Hunt added.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

Leading healthcare representatives have called for patience after the troubled launch of Australia’s online COVID-19 vaccination booking system, which left clinics across the country inundated with appointment requests they could not fulfill.

But Health Minister Greg Hunt has batted away suggestions the rollout left clinics in the lurch.

The Federal Government yesterday introduced the HealthDirect Vaccine Eligibility Checker website, which points priority communities listed under Phase 1B of Australia’s vaccine scheme to clinics and health centres participating in the rollout.

Vaccinations under Phase 1B are slated to begin on Monday.

However, numerous GP clinics across Australia said they were unable to accept new bookings as their existing vaccine stocks are minimal, or have already been spoken for.

Other clinics using the HealthEngine online booking system were unable to accept patients who were not already registered with those health centres.

At least one clinic said its booking systems were under renovation at the time of the Vaccine Eligibility Checker’s launch, meaning they could not confirm new vaccine appointments regardless.

As frustrations mount, Australian Medical Association (AMA) vice president Chris Moy told ABC “News Breakfast” that Australians should remain calm through the next stage of the rollout.

“This is not like a once-only concert where you need to get on and make a booking straightaway. It’s more a situation where we need an orderly-type process,” Moy said Thursday morning.

Phase 1B will eventually include some 4,600 vaccination sites nationwide, Moy said, with local vaccine manufacturer CSL promising to produce one million doses of the AstraZeneca formulation a week from the end of March.

Australians should “hold their horses a little bit and just get with the idea that the vaccines will be there, but they just need to be done in a calm, orderly way,” Moy said.

The nation’s relatively low levels of COVID-19 infections means the rollout can be undertaken “without COVID pushing us,” Moy added.

The Royal Australian College for General Practitioners has also urged Australians not to unleash their frustrations on clinic staff who may have been caught off-guard by Wednesday’s website launch.

Yet the AMA has reserved some criticism for the Federal Government’s handling of the vaccine booking portal.

Speaking to NewsGP Wednesday, AMA president Dr Omar Korshid said, “it’s clear the Government needs to make it easy for patients and general practices alike to manage bookings for COVID-19 vaccinations and be clear about how long patients may have to wait before they can get an appointment.”

Shadow Minister for Women Tanya Plibersek also lambasted the Federal Government for the “chaos” of Wednesday’s launch, telling “Today” it is “not the fault of the GP clinic staff that this is poorly organised.”

But when presented the idea that Wednesday’s rollout was flawed, Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt today told ABC AM “I respectfully disagree with the categorisation.”

And when asked if clinics deserved an apology, Hunt said “I think they deserve our thanks, that on day one there was always going to be an initial surge and initial demand.

“Every clinic that was listed had actually placed their [vaccine] orders so I want to thank them for that.”

Hunt said a further 100 Commonwealth-backed vaccination sites nationwide “will take all-comers”.

Around 240,000 Australians have been vaccinated so far, Hunt said.

Some six million people stand to be vaccinated under Phase 1B, and the Federal Government states every Australian will be offered an initial vaccine dose by the end of October.

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