Coronavirus in Ballarat: Mandatory vaccines being considered to protect the vulnerable in disability, aged care

But she quickly received advice that wasn't the case, and has instead relied on staff to encourage each other to get the jab.

READ MORE: Encouraging workers to get vaccinated during aged care and disability blitz

"We spent a lot of time looking at are we allowed to mandate and say they have to have the vaccine, then we realised we were not allowed to. There was mixed messaging around are we even allowed to be asking them and recording who has been vaccinated, but it feels like that messaging is changing now," she said.

Many staff had already been vaccinated, but this week's decision to provide priority lanes at vaccination centres including the BHS Community Vaccination Centre at the Mercure prompted many more to get the jab.

"We've had staff go for the fast track, get straight in, get it done then come back ... and we are finding the staff themselves are very much encouraging each other saying how easy it was to get in."

Ms Hubbard welcomed the news that governments are considering mandatory vaccinations for people working in disability and aged care sectors to protect the most vulnerable in the community.

Because Pinarc does not run disability accommodation she was unsure how many of the service's clients had been vaccinated.

McCallum Disability Services chief executive Tyrone McCuskey said all of its residents in supported accommodation across Ballarat had received at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine through Ballarat Health Services.

"We've been quite fortunate working very closely with BHS helping us a lot in terms of getting access to vaccine," he said.

Last week it was claimed that more politicians and Olympians had been vaccinated than people in disability services.

"There's 26,000 in the disability sector and at that stage only 1000 had been vaccinated which included 50 of our residents so we were five per cent of the national conversion at that point," Mr McCuskey said.

With in-facility vaccinations restricted to residents, staff have been a little slower to get the jab.

"Staff, like the general population, have been a little bit slower on the uptake than we would have liked. We did an anonymous survey of staff and 80 per cent are keen to get vaccine and when (the state government) announced the vaccine blitz we welcomed the opportunity and allowed our staff to reorientate rosters to go as walk-ins," he said.

Mr McCuskey said it was a "no brainer" to make vaccinations for staff in disability and aged care services mandatory.

"We've got to try to do as much as can for the safety and wellbeing of the vulnerable people in our care. It seems a bit of a no brainer if flu vaccinations are mandatory in aged care workers. I don't see how, if something is more deadly than the flu like COVID 19, why it wouldn't be mandatory."

IN OTHER NEWS

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, state premiers and territory chief ministers on Friday backed the idea of mandatory vaccinations for aged care and disability workers at a national cabinet meeting.

"Make no mistake, we are leaning heavily into this as leaders of governments, and myself as prime minister, to see a move towards mandatory vaccination for aged care workers," Mr Morrison said.

Australia's expert medical panel has been asked to detail how to make vaccines mandatory in the sectors without putting services under strain. State public health orders would be used to mandate coronavirus jabs, similar to rules in place for flu vaccinations.

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