What happened to the vaccine indemnity scheme? Don’t ask a doctor

At a late night press conference over a month ago, Scott Morrison made a big announcement he hoped would get the vaccine rollout back on track. An indemnity scheme for general practitioners giving out the AstraZeneca vaccine — it was meant to cut through a lot of the hesitancy, and make it easier for younger people to get jabbed.

But while there’s been an increase in interest from under 40s, and a push to widen uptake of the vaccine, the scheme still hasn’t been developed. Beyond a press release, and a promise it’ll be back-dated to the start of the vaccine rollout, GPs have no details about how it’ll actually work. Nobody does. 

The scheme

Morrison’s announcement was meant to mollify concerns about AstraZeneca. Australia currently has 3 million doses of the reputationally challenged vaccine sitting on shelves. At the time, Sydney was days into a lockdown that will now last at least two months. Boosting vaccination rates could be the only way out.

So what’s actually happened since then? Later that week, Health Minister Greg Hunt put out a press release announcing the government was developing a vaccine claim scheme, designed to provide no-fault compensation for anyone who suffered an adverse reaction to the vaccine. 

But from the outset, the plan seemed more about the look of things rather than figuring out practical details. Medical law expert Bill Madden told Crikey at the time he thought the indemnity scheme itself probably wouldn’t do very much. GPs are generally pretty well indemnified. Instead, the announcement all looked like a bit of optics, designed to shift some of the responsibility for low vaccination rates elsewhere.

But while doctors themselves are well protected, a broader scheme is something experts have been calling for for years, and warned needed to be in place ahead of the vaccine rollout. As far back as April, Hunt was telling doctors they need not worry about indemnity, and was holding discussions with the Australian Medical Association, even if nothing had been formalised or explicitly announced. It only took the government until June, when confidence with AstraZeneca was at an all time low, to start developing the scheme. 

But most GPs we spoke to knew scant details about the scheme, how it would operate, or when it would come into place. That’s because that information isn’t out there yet. We put questions about it to Hunt’s office, who referred us to the Department of Health, who confirmed details were still yet to be finalised.

“Details of the scheme, including appropriate evidentiary requirements, will be settled in consultation with peak bodies, indemnity insurers, patient groups and the states and territories,” a spokesperson for the department said. 

Madden said the lack of information was a real problem:

“There’s been no further announcements, in circumstances where people are being encouraged to run don’t walk to their nearest vaccination centre, it’s a bit unsatisfactory to have them up in the air,” he said.

GPs in the dark

The indemnity scheme announcement was meant to make life easier for already over-burdened GPs. It’s unclear whether it has yet. 

Tasked with doing the bulk of the heavy-lifting on top of their existing work, practitioners are working to dispel vaccine hesitancy at the front line. They’re also struggling with unclear, inconsistent communication from the federal government.

Imaan Joshi, a GP based in Western Sydney, the heart of the city’s COVID-19 outbreak, still struggles to get people to take the AstraZeneca vaccine.

“They call it the dodgy vaccine,” she tells Crikey. 

Most of her patients are older, at ages where AstraZeneca is recommended, and where their risks of serious illness from COVID-19 are far higher. She’s also encountered many people under 40 willing to get AstraZeneca, but getting denied by their own GPs. 

One source of that reticence is a lack of clarity about the indemnity scheme. Joshi says there are some GPs who remain suspicious about it. Martina Gleeson, a GP in southern Sydney, says while the indemnity scheme didn’t change her willingness to offer the vaccine to some patients under 40, the optics of it might have further convinced some in the community the vaccine was less safe.

Zoom out, and the vaccine indemnity scheme suffers from many of the same problems which have hindered the entire rollout. A statement from nowhere at a press conference. No information for people doing the work. Months without any clarity on what has been done.

We’ve seen it recently with the decision to bring pharmacists into the rollout. The government first asked them for expressions of interest back in January. It’s taken until July to get them involved. 

We’ve seen it with the decisions to change advice around AstraZeneca, where GPs were given no notice. Gleeson says they’ve gone above and beyond to get jabs in arms. But the constant, abrupt shifts from Canberra have made that job harder.

“It’s been very difficult to cope with change by media release,” she said.