Ninety per cent of staff at Crawford Medical Centre in Picton Street, Howick, have had their first Covid-19 vaccine shots while 75 per cent have now had both shots with the 21 day gap in between.
Dr Bruce Greenfield, the clinical director at Crawford, said that the practice had 52 staff.
“Some others are still on the wait list as they weren’t available at the times offered, or were waiting on specialist advice re their medical history to check safety,” he said.
“Most of these spots were offered through March when there was excess stock from the border workers’ roll-out.
“We were called last minute and offered spaces within the next 24 hours which everyone was keen to grab.
“There’s also a more formal ‘frontline health’ vaccination programme which started at the beginning of the month to cover all Group 2 workers who weren’t offered the last-minute option.
“Many of the spots were offered outside office hours so most of our staff went to Waipuna Hotel or The Holiday Inn at Mangere for the vaccine after hours and weekends so it didn’t disrupt the functioning of the clinic too much.”
Crawford Medical is still waiting to hear how the wider Covid-19 vaccine roll-out will affect GP practices.
“We don’t know what the expectation is for our involvement yet – and with the flu vaccine programme starting in the second half of April, it’s likely to be a busy year for vaccines,” Greenfield said.
Patients need to wait 14 days after having a flu vaccine before they can have a Covid-19 vaccine and then there’s three weeks between the first and second Covid-19 vaccine.
“Similarly if you had the two Covid-19 vaccines first, you would need to wait two weeks before having the flu vaccine,” he said.
