A disability support organisation in north-west Victoria is paying its staff overtime to get vaccinated against COVID-19 outside their work hours because it is yet to be included in any co-ordinated vaccination rollout.
However, Sunraysia Residential Services will not benefit from Victoria's five-day blitz to vaccinate aged and disability care workers because Mildura does not have a state-run mass vaccination hub.
According to SRS chief executive Marian Luehman, the situation is the latest issue in the vaccine rollout that has frustrated the organisation, which provides round-the-clock support for people with disabilities to remain in their own homes but is struggling to ensure its 200-strong workforce is immunised.
"We have decided that we're not waiting for the government and we have been trying to get all out staff to go out and get the COVID jab if they possibly can," Ms Luehman said.
It would cost SRS up to $15,000 to pay employees for two hours at their base rate, she said, which would come from its general revenue if the service provided evidence its staff had been vaccinated on their own time.
"If I look at the data that's been coming through since … last night, I would say there's 15 staff who have been able to get the vaccination so far."
Mildura 'off the list'
The Victorian government said it would help residential disability service providers access state-run mass vaccination sites by Sunday, although the Commonwealth would continue to be responsible for vaccinations in disability residential settings.
However, Mildura's nearest state-run vaccination hub is four hours' drive away — in Bendigo.
Sunraysia Community Health Services' manager of clinical programs, Shelley Faulks, said Mildura "always had good access to the AstraZeneca vaccine" and had been able to increase booking spots for over-50s.
But, she said, the lack of a state hub meant "a lot of difficulty" accessing Pfizer.
Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley said the state government was talking to the Commonwealth about being able to expand the Pfizer rollout to places such as Mildura, but stressed "that it all comes down to the issue of supply certainty".
The federal Department of Health said it was "working closely" with states and territories to supply Pfizer to regional areas, but "exact locations are decided by the state governments".
Mallee District Aboriginal Services — an Aboriginal community-controlled health organisation servicing the north-west of Victoria — is also awaiting a supply of Pfizer, according to the organisation's CEO Jacki Turfrey.
"I suspect we're probably coming to the maximum number of people who are eligible for AstraZeneca and willing to have that vaccine," Ms Turfrey said.
"I suspect that, once we're able to source Pfizer – which we're well in the middle of discussions around – that our demand for vaccines will again go up, because obviously we have a lot of community members under the age of 50."
The shortage of Pfizer vaccines in Mildura has already prompted some under-50s eligible for the jab to travel interstate to South Australian vaccine centres.
Limited shipments of Pfizer have so far been delivered to Mildura for frontline health workers and certain other eligible recipients in the 1b category.
Ms Luehman said it was "unrealistic" to think her staff would have to travel to Bendigo to be vaccinated.
She also said the need to account for adverse reactions meant it was "unrealistic to think that everyone can line up and go through at the one period of time".
"But when it comes to services, when it comes to support, when it comes to the COVID vaccine: Where are we on the list?
"We're not on the list."
Winter is coming
The wait for Pfizer in Mildura means most of Sunraysia Residential Services' vulnerable clients, including the 40 in shared supported accommodation, are living "cautious" lives.
Ms Luehman said her staff had been encouraged to set up appointments for clients to see their GPs to receive the vaccine.
"We only have six people who've been vaccinated, and we did that [because] they were going on a holiday to Queensland and we felt it was our duty of care before we took them outside of the state, to support them in going to their GP," she said.
"But they're an independent group, so that's a bit different to people with high medical needs — who we support as well.
"Understand that a lot of people we support have no idea what's going on.
"All they know is their whole life has been changed [and] their routine — which they hang on to and which keeps them sane — has been taken away from them."
