Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. There are aged-care residents in my electorate who have not even received their first dose of COVID vaccine, and aged-care workers in my electorate have been told to go and find their own vaccinations. Why are aged-care residents and workers being left vulnerable?

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll deal with the question in general, but I understand the member made specific comments about a particular facility today, the Iris Grange Heidelberg Heights facility, if I'm correct. Iris Grange is a facility which is a private supported residential service. The Victorian government had accepted responsibility for vaccinating that particular supported residential service in Victoria, and the date which had been advised to us was 11 July. The Commonwealth is stepping in to vaccinate that facility. Iris Grange is not a Commonwealth regulated or funded residential aged-care facility, but, despite that fact, and despite that it was listed on the Victorian register, we are stepping in to do that.

More generally, I will move beyond Irish Grange—where, as I say, it was a facility that Victoria had acknowledged and accepted was one that they were going to vaccinate; we will take that. In Victoria, 582 facilities were done prior to today. There are another seven today and the final nine tomorrow. I believe the Prime Minister was able to refer to one in particular from the member for Macnamara's electorate.

What this means is that we have been vaccinating Australians around the country, but, in particular we have been focusing, as our highest priority, on our aged-care residents. That's 337,227 vaccinations in aged and disability care. The in-reach program has now covered 4,322 aged-care facility visits, and 97 per cent nationwide. Very specifically, in relation to aged-care workers, where vaccines are available and additional, those present at the time of an in-reach vaccination are being vaccinated. As with every other Australian, where there is the capacity for them to visit their GP, to visit a Commonwealth clinic or to visit a state clinic, they are being encouraged to do so at the fastest possible rate—at the fastest possible time. That is actually the fastest way to do this. That is something—using our general practice network and using our state and Commonwealth network. At this point in time, total Commonwealth vaccinations are 2.522 million. Total state vaccinations are 1.38 million. All those systems are working together. We are able to have in-reach and have the capacity for those workers who may not be there on a particular day, or for whom there were not additional vaccines, to visit state clinics, general practice respiratory clinics or general practices. This means there's a comprehensive approach. (Time expired)