COVID vaccine in Ballarat: healthcare workers keen in jab call-up

Ballarat has a potentially huge army of health professionals eager to get started but all were waiting for final details from the state and their respective industry bodies on exactly how this might play out in the state's race to end lockdowns.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed on Friday hundreds of health professionals and students would be trained to prepare and give COVID vaccinations as the state continued to step-up its jab campaign.

This came as word broke Australia was preparing for a new four million-dose Pfizer injection from the United Kingdom this month.

Allied health professionals who spoke to The Courier on Friday said their potential call-up came as a shock. Although many were trained in needles of some form, vaccinations were not typically part of the job.

Ballarat Dental Group dentist Han Han Chung-Nguyen said she would love to be involved in the vaccine roll-out - but she would need to be involved in training and find out more details first.

Lake Health Group senior physiotherapist Michael Pierce echoed this and was awaiting further instruction from physiotherapy's professional body.

It was also unclear whether the call-up would create vaccinations in private clinics or pool allied and dental health professionals into vaccination hubs.

Dentists, dental hygienists, physiotherapists, speech pathologists and podiatrists are among the call-up.

The city's two major nursing schools, Federation University and Australian Catholic University, already have nursing and midwifery students in action as part of the vaccine frontline in Ballarat.

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Premier Andrews hailed the prime minster's announcement about a boost of supplies as he expanded the state's jab workforce.

Vaccination supply shortages of Pfizer and people shopping about their vaccine options were creating massive pressures across Ballarat in boosting jab rates as reported in The Courier this week.

Ballarat Health Services opened walk-up appointments for all adults seeking AstraZeneca doses from Friday with the state also halving the interval time between AstraZeneca jabs to six weeks in a bid to get more jabs in arms sooner.

Premier Andrews' next step was to "train up a bigger and broader workforce" to meet increasing demand.

"It's essentially everybody who can do this safely needs to be part of that team as we grow and expand the total amount of vaccination that is we do," Premier Andrews said. "With expanded hours, with many more appointments being offered over time. Again, a lot of this is subject to supply."

Federation University nursing professor Virginia Plummer said this had already been a "once in a lifetime" experience for nursing students, who had risen to the occasion.

"They do have a really important role in the health system anyway. But this is great experience early in their career - some students are only 19 or 20 years old - to be working with other health professionals and contributing to the cause in such a collaborative way and in a time when the future was so uncertain," Professor Plummer said.

"For them, this is a chance to see public health policy at work."

Professor Plummer said students were also building communication skills in obtaining patient history and consent, answering questions, explaining procedures and offering reassurance.

ACU Ballarat professional practice coordinator Ashton Kline said the pandemic had restricted many student placements, particularly ruling out emergency department and intensive care units under Victoria's health department guidelines.

Mr Kline said clinical partners had worked closely with ACU and Federation University to make placements possible in the vaccination roll-out, which he said was an innovative feat in a pandemic.

"Students are excited by the buzz of being on the frontline of the roll-out in such a challenging time for healthcare," Mr Kline said.

"...What we've seen in the past year and a half is we have to deal with this - the pandemic is not going away any time soon. Students are part of the roll-out, adapting their practice and in this, understanding how Australia is adapting to the virus."

Meanwhile, Australia's four million-dose vaccine bonus will be shared across states and territories based on population.

Earlier in the week, Australia clinched a swap deal with Singapore for 500,000 Pfizer doses due to expire but to be repaid in December. Singapore has already fully vaccinated more than 80 per cent of its population from COVID.

A one million-dose Pfizer package arrived from Poland earlier this month to help protect young people in Sydney hotspots.

The first doses of Moderna vaccine are also expected to arrive this month and, when delivered to Ballarat, will become part of the UFS pharmacy vaccination program.

Most UFS pharmacies will start vaccination appointments with AstraZeneca jabs from Monday.

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