Thread by @DC_GSHealth

Why it’s hard to get a booster dose 🧵 @NSWHealth @healthgovau

1) again, shift in date sprung on us without a heads up to order stock or prepare staffing. We can't administer what we don't have

2) change fortnightly ordering of multidose vials to more ad hoc- was always going to be hard to know what we needed when demand was lower - easy to under order or over order out of fear in rule changes in a fortnight

3) people getting SMS from @NSWHealth saying they are due for their 5 month dose, BEFORE they are due and being furious they aren’t yet, and us copping the abuse and 1 star reviews for it - sms received today - 2nd dose 25/7/21. (5d early)

Solutions?

1) Raise the cap on how many doses can be ordered particularly by clinics that have the capacity to administer more doses.

2) Stop telling people they are due when they are not. Either change the messaging to let them know they are due soon or actually wait until they are due

3) give us some kinds of heads up so we can order stock earlier, and let us order more consumables for those who can get 7 doses from a Pfizer vial, and allow double consumables for moderna as boosters are half full doses

4) to clarify on last point. An order of 200 moderna doses allows you to order 200 needles and syringes. But used as boosters you can do 400 moderna boosters with that same amount of vaccine, you'll just be 200 syringes and needles short.

5) Change CVAS so we can actually order the increased quantity without being on the phone to CVAS all day (time we can spend administering vaccines)

You may have noticed I didn't even discuss bringing boosters forward yet because these issues with boosters at 5 months, so realistically for a lot of people it will still be longer than 5 due to these bottlenecks.