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COVID-19 vaccinations through general practice
As of 13 November 2021, 37,644,701 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Australia, 19,151,848 of which were administered through general practice (51% of all vaccines administered).
Update your Moderna vaccine clinic details on the Vaccine Clinic Finder
The Vaccine Clinic Finder (VCF) will play a critical role in the next phase of the vaccine rollout as general practice begins administering the Moderna vaccine.
If your practice will be administering the Moderna vaccine, you should make sure these clinics are set up in your online booking system and supply the URL for these new clinics to healthdirect Australia via your booking system vendor. This ensures your practice’s appointment availability details appear on the VCF and are visible to all eligible Australians to seamlessly book an appointment online.
Practices offering Moderna will appear in the VCF after an initial Moderna order is placed, so bookings can start immediately.
Clinics with booking systems integrated with the VCF in real time are preferentially listed in search results for consumers. Review a list of compatible booking software on the healthdirect Australia website.
If your clinic is not yet listing next-available COVID-19 vaccine appointments in the VCF, check with your booking system provider to get your system connected.
Webinar series: COVID-19 vaccine rollout
| Date: |
Thursday 25 November and 2 December 2021 |
| Time: |
7.00 - 8.00 pm (AEDT) |
| Venue: |
Online |
| Cost: |
Free |
Join our webinar series on the unique challenges of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
In the first webinar, we will address the unique needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and help you engage with culturally and linguistically diverse patients. It’ll also cover:
- vaccinating children
- discussing vaccine evidence
- addressing parent hesitancy
- handling challenges of vaccination in people with cognitive disabilities.
In the second webinar, we will discuss strategies to engage vaccine-hesitant patients, including information on side effects, the Moderna vaccine and mRNA-1273, booster vaccine doses, and mixed vaccines. We will also take a look at ways to make your practice more efficient in vaccine delivery and examine lessons learned during the pandemic to date.
Register for all webinars in the series
How to get proof of vaccination against COVID-19
Patients can follow guidance on the Services Australia webpage to obtain their proof of vaccination against COVID-19. The guidance includes accessing proof online and offline, getting proof for someone else and obtaining proof if you are not eligible for Medicare.
Patients who are unable to access proof of vaccination online can call the Australian Immunisation Register on 1800 653 809 (8.00 am – 5.00 pm) to request a hard copy of their COVID-19 digital certificate. The certificate will then be posted to them, which can take up to 14 days to arrive.
GPs and other vaccination providers can help patients who have no capacity to source their proof of vaccination independently by printing a copy of their immunisation history for them.
The RACGP will soon publish a fact sheet on getting proof of vaccination for you to share with your patients.
COVID-19 taskforce updates
The National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce (of which the RACGP is a member) has released new recommendations on the use of pulse oximeters, noting that, ‘People with risk factors for deterioration, who are being cared for at home, should be offered monitoring of oxygen saturation with pulse oximetry.’
The taskforce has also released a new assessment flowchart covering pathways to care for adults with COVID-19 and updated the flowchart for the management of adults with mild COVID-19. These updates are part of an ongoing review of all 11 clinical flowcharts.
Access all living guidelines and flowcharts
Resource updates for providing care for patients with COVID-19 at home
Currently, most patients with COVID-19 being cared at home have mild illness. However, as the country opens up and case numbers rise, increasing numbers of people with moderate disease are being cared for under this model.
The RACGP is currently updating our suite of resources on caring for COVID-19-positive patients in their homes. We will publish updated home-care guidelines for patients with COVID-19 later this week, with the associated guide, action plan and symptom diary for patients to follow in December.
We will release updates to the guide on caring for adults with post-COVID conditions in December.
All updates align with recent updates from the National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce.