Covid vaccine bookings for children in Australia scarce as parents told to ‘check again in next few weeks’ | Health

Securing a Covid vaccine appointment for five- to 11-year-olds is proving difficult for some parents and carers who are being told to “check again in the next few weeks” when attempting to make a booking.

Earlier this month the federal government said slots could be found through its vaccine clinic finder website from 15 December, with the first appointments available from 10 January.

But when searching for appointments by postcode, many suburbs return a message stating: “Clinics are currently placing orders for the 5-11 year old vaccine. If you can’t find a suitable clinic or appointment, please check again in the next few weeks.”

A University of Sydney epidemiologist, Prof Alexandra Martiniuk, said she had no luck trying to book an appointment for her six- and nine-year-old children via the HotDoc and NSW Health websites. She also could not book an appointment at GP offices she called.

“They had no bookings available,” she said. “I checked again today [Tuesday] and HotDoc says bookings will start in five weeks and several GPs say to ring back later still.”

Martiniuk said she was concerned booking websites would be overwhelmed once appointments do become available as people rushed to secure appointments before school returns for 2022.

In Western Australia, a father living in the Perth suburb of Guildford said GPs in his area told him they had no appointment dates for five- to 11-year-olds and they were unsure of availability. “This is not isolated to my local area,” he told Guardian Australia.

The father called the national Covid hotline for assistance. “Staff could not provide any clues as to when bookings would become available and just cited the January start date for administration,” he said.

“Speaking to [federal health minister Greg] Hunt’s office was an exercise in frustration, with their office manager suggesting calling GPs but not citing which GPs were able to take bookings. They were unwilling to categorically state that you can’t book when asked directly.”

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A spokesperson for the WA health department said bookings for five- to 11-year-olds would be available “soon” through state-run clinics: “WA Health has been informed by the commonwealth that the vaccines are expected in WA within the next few weeks.”

A federal health department spokesperson said the government had an agreement with Pfizer to receive a sufficient supply of the paediatric vaccine to cover all children aged five to 11 in Australia in January.

“If individuals cannot find a suitable clinic or appointment, people are encouraged to check back regularly as more clinics and more appointments will be added over the coming weeks,” they said.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president, Dr Karen Price, said the vaccine rollout to children was critical but GPs were already under pressure after vaccinating the rest of the population.

“The problem we face with rolling out Covid-19 vaccines to children is that vaccinating children is a more complex job compared to adults,” Price said.

“Children require more time and care, as well as space because their parents come with them, and this has to be factored in by practices planning vaccine clinics. Without appropriate funding, it will be harder for practices to get the job done and make ends meet at the end of the day. And while GPs don’t get into this career for the money, our practices need to remain viable.”

The president of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Omar Khorshid, said he had not been given any information about supply constraints. But he said some clinics may prefer to wait until the vaccine had been delivered and they had stock in-hand before opening bookings – and they could be waiting until after the Christmas holidays.

“Practices have been able to order the paediatric vaccine for a couple of weeks now and those orders that went in by 17 December will be delivered by 7 January to be available from the 10th,” he said.

“Orders in by the end of the month will be delivered by the 14th. Christmas is coming up and some practices won’t be open over the break, so practices need to factor that into how much they order.

“We’ve been given no information to suggest any supply constraint, but these vaccines are only just arriving in the country so who knows, we have been given no information about how much is arriving. And with the booster program starting, the constraint may not be supply but the number of nurses available for paediatric vaccines and that will be variable across the country.”

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