Indigenous health system faces ‘huge workload’ to close vaccination gap, experts warn
The Indigenous health workforce is stretched and faces a “huge vaccination workload” as it scrambles to close the Covid-19 vaccination gap and administer boosters to Aboriginal communities, health advisers say.
The peak body for general practitioners has also issued a dire warning about the lack of funding its members are being given to participate in the booster rollout, saying half of Australia’s participating clinics are losing money by administering Covid-19 jabs.
Demand for boosters has soared this week amid Omicron variant fears and the government’s decision to shorten the gap between the second and third shots.
The number of Australians with a third dose jumped from 687,067 on Saturday to 868,122 on Tuesday, an increase of almost 200,000 in four days.
The sudden demand has put pressure on GPs and pharmacists, and the Australian Medical Association on Wednesday warned that booster rollout risked falling behind.
Attention has also turned to the key priority groups for vaccination, including Indigenous Australians.
A huge gap still exists between primary Covid-19 vaccination rates for the general population and those for Indigenous Australians, a failing that experts have labelled a “national shame”. Just 77% of Indigenous Australians have received a first dose, compared with 93.5% for the general population. The double-dose rate for Indigenous Australians is 67.8%, compared with 89.7% nationally.
The Aboriginal healthcare sector faces a “huge vaccination workload” in 2022, Dr Jason Agostino, a National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (Naccho) medical adviser, said.
“We have regular childhood vaccinations, flu vaccines, boosters to deliver, as well as continuing to target the 25% of our population over 12 who are unvaccinated,” Agostino said.
“It’s a large workload, bigger than the previous six months because we still have to do that intense outreach to the unvaccinated, plus deliver boosters and vaccines to kids as well.
Agostino said these issues have been raised at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Group on Covid-19, which advises the Department of Health. The group meets weekly.
“They are very aware of the challenges we’ve got. We’re glad of some additional funding released this week to assist, but this is a long-term problem, with long-term workload solutions,” he said.
Amsant, the Northern Territory’s peak Aboriginal health body, has called for the federal government to bring back its international workforce. The NT has been reliant in the past on a regular supply of nurses, mostly from New Zealand, to boost local primary healthcare staff numbers.
Amsant also called for the government to increase the scope of practice for Aboriginal health workers and healthcare practitioners, so they can administer vaccines.
Agostino said he supported those calls.
“Our workforce is stretched, and our primary healthcare workforce is exhausted. And it remains so important for us to get the five- to 11-year-old cohort vaccinated,” he said.
“The important thing to be said is, boosters are not an optional extra,” he said. “They are essential.”
Meanwhile general practitioners, who are the backbone of the booster rollout, have warned they are not being adequately funded to meet the costs of the next phase in the vaccination program.
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president, Dr Karen Price, said many GP practices had operated on paper thin margins in the past two years of the pandemic. One in every two clinics, she said, were losing money on the vaccine rollout.
“And while GPs are not in the job for the money, by any means, we need to make ends meet,” Price told the Guardian.
“GPs remain the backbone of the vaccine rollout, we’ve delivered over half of all vaccines across the country to date. We know the booster rollout is critical to protect our community as Australia opens up and we see increasing cases in the community.”
“We need to fight this with all we have, not with one arm tied behind our backs.”