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PCIG Meeting Notes 16 June

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Department of Health – Primary Health Care COVID-19 Response Teleconference 16 June 2021 – Meeting notes from Dr Maria Boulton

The Primary Care Implementation Group (PCIG) is an online meeting that includes most primary healthcare peak bodies. It is convened weekly by the Department of Health as part of the COVID-19 response.
Dr Maria Boulton attends on behalf of the AGPA.

General Notes from the Meeting

Over 6 million COVID vaccine doses have been delivered to date

GP Pfizer Vaccine Program – Letters are being sent to GP clinics re-Pfizer vaccines today. Clinics are being onboarded from July to October

Await […]


The Pandemic, General Practice, Doctor Shortages and Burn Out

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Whether we like it or not, we are in the 3rd and 4th wave of the Pandemic, and things have pretty much progressed as expected.

At the Primary care level, we as GPs are feeling the pressure. We are feeling the impact of the interruption on chronic care, and the mental health caseload has exploded. Many health professionals are exhausted and burnt out. Successive governments have not increased the Medicare rebates to keep up with the health care costs. We have been […]

DoH COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Primary Care Update 17 June

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The DoH have published an update on COVID-19 Vaccine Roll out including:

  • Updated ATAGI advice on the preferred aged groups Pfizer and Astra Zeneca Vaccines
  • CMO Statement on Updated ATAGI advice
  • Updated consent form
  • Decision making guide for women who are pregnant, breast-feeding or planning pregnancy
  • MBS Flag-Fall for Vaccine Suitability Assessment Services
  • Updates on Expansion of AZ General Practice Roll Out and GP delivery of Pfizer Vaccine.

    The update is here



Flu Vax Program 6 June

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As at COB 6 June 2021:

  • 6,590,169 doses of seasonal influenza vaccines have been administered and entered in to the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) in 2021, compared to around 8,451,480 doses for the same time in 2020 and 5,712,432 doses in 2019.
    • 873,582 (13.2%) doses have been administered by Pharmacies and 4,603,618 (69.3%) by GPs.
  • TGA has released 20,424,883 doses for the Australian market:
    • 9,346,545 doses for the National Immunisation Program (NIP) as well as state and territory government programs
    • 11,078,338 doses for the private market.

Geographical breakdown is here

Timing of administration of other vaccines, including influenza vaccine

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DoH advise there has been a change in the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) advice, stating that the preferred minimum interval between receipt of a COVID-19 vaccine and any other vaccine, including the influenza vaccine, is 7 days.

A shorter interval (i.e. less than 7 days, including co-administration) is acceptable in the following settings:
• increased risk of COVID-19 or another vaccine-preventable disease (e.g. COVID-19 outbreak, influenza outbreak, tetanus-prone wound); or
• logistical issues e.g. difficulty scheduling visits to maintain the 7 day interval.
This advice has been updated on the DoH Clinical considerations page, and all […]



DOH Information Update 11 June

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DoH Update (here) for 11 June includes:

Additional Practices are being onboarded and will commence delivering vaccines from 21 June

EOIs to administer Pfizer Vaccine

Timing of other vaccines including influenza vaccine – minimum interval has been reduced to 7 days and may be shorter in some circumstances

Uploading vaccine information to AIR for vaccinations not administered by the consulting GP

PCIG Meeting Notes 9 June 2021

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Department of Health – Primary Health Care COVID-19 Response Teleconference 02/06/2021 – Meeting notes from Dr Trish Baker

The Primary Care Implementation Group (PCIG) is an online meeting that includes most primary healthcare peak bodies. It is convened weekly by the Department of Health as part of the COVID-19 response.
Dr Trish Baker attended the 9 June meeting on behalf of the AGPA.

General Notes from the Meeting

EOIs for Pfizer – GP must submit by Thursday (10 June) midnight. Many practices are unaware of this deadline so there is a need to extend the cut-off date. This was acknowledged as […]


Expression of Interest for GP to Participate in Future Primary Care Pfizer Program

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The Department of Health has released an Expression of Interest for general practices who are currently participating in the COVID-19 Vaccination Program, as approved as part of the Expression of Interest undertaken from January to March 2021, to indicate their interest to administer the Pfizer vaccine.

This would be in addition to their current administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine. It is anticipated that all participating general practices will be given the opportunity to administer Pfizer by October 2021. A limited number of practices may be invited to commence from July in areas of need, and for priority populations, based […]

PCIG Meeting Notes 2 June 2021

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Department of Health – Primary Health Care COVID-19 Response Teleconference 02/06/2021 – Meeting notes from Dr Maria Boulton

The Primary Care Implementation Group (PCIG) is an online meeting that includes most primary healthcare peak bodies. It is convened weekly by the Department of Health as part of the COVID-19 response.
Dr Maria Boulton attends on behalf of the AGPA.

Comments from AGPA

Practices are seeing a seeing a spike in demand for COVID vaccines. 
There are concerns about significantly increased demand when we start doing second COVID vaccine doses in two  weeks.
It is important we take full advantage of the increase in […]