Patients will no longer have to wait for an sms with a link to book their COVID vaccine appointment. Anyone over the age of 50 can now book online or via the AMS App.
Simply choose the appointment type ‘COVID Vaccine – Phase 1b [Dose 1]’ from the drop down options when making your appointment and follow the prompts to confirm your details.
Blackbutt Doctors Surgery will receive 100 vaccines per week starting the week of 22nd March. We will be delivering vaccines in our usual working hours, Monday to Thursday. We have identified over 2000 of our usual patients who are eligible for vaccination in Phase 1b and will be contacting you via SMS to invite you in for vaccination.
We are just inviting 100 patients per week for vaccination, as that is all the vaccines we have. We are starting with those identified as highest medical risk. If you do not receive and SMS in the first few weeks, please just wait – we will get to everyone eventually.
Phase 1b priority population groups include:
- People aged 70 years of age or older;
- Health care workers;
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults over 55 years;
- Younger people with an underlying medical condition, including people with a disability; and
- Critical and high risk workers, including Australian Government officials about to be deployed overseas on official government business.
The table below provides further information on specific underlying medical conditions which are eligible under Phase 1b. Please be aware that this guidance may change as the roll out proceeds and any changes will be updated on the Australian Governments Department of Health website.
Please note that we will only be able to book patients who meet the eligibility criteria for each phase of the roll-out. Patients will need to prove their eligibility to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in Phase 1b. The table below provides examples of acceptable types of proof for each population group:
Please be patient – I am sure you can understand that with over 2,000 existing patients to reach, and only 100 vaccines available each week, it will take us a while to get to you all! Please be assured that we will be getting the vaccines distributed to our patients as quickly as we are able to.
The Australian Government aims to have as many people vaccinated as possible in 2021. Identified priority groups will get the first available safe and effective doses of vaccines. More people will have access to a vaccine as more doses become available throughout 2021. The COVID-19 Vaccines National Rollout Strategy details the phases in which vaccines will be available.
We’ll continue to provide more information and updates as they are available. Thank you for your patience during this time.
At this stage, only selected at risk and high priority groups are being vaccinated, as the Government begins to roll the vaccine out in a staged approach across the country. The first people to get the vaccine will be those who have the highest risk of being exposed to COVID-19.These people include:
- People working in quarantine facilities
- Healthcare workers working in locations with a higher risk of exposure to COVID-19, such as COVID-19 clinic workers, emergency department workers, NSW Ambulance clinical workforce including patient transport workers, COVID ward workers, critical care workers including support staff and COVID pathology lab staff.
- Make sure that your contact details (mobile phone number and email) are correct and up to date on the AMS App.
- If you don’t have the AMS on your phone, you can download it and set up your account via the Appointments page on our website and by following the prompts to download the app:https://www.blackbuttdoctors.com.au/appointments/
- Blackbutt will contact you directly via SMS or Email when you are eligible to receive the vaccine and we have available stock to administer it at our practice. Please do not contact us to find out when you will be able to receive the vaccine.
- Once you have received the vaccine, you can obtain your vaccination certificate by downloading the Express Plus Medicare App – we will not be printing out and giving these certificates to patients. For more information check out this link: Get ready for your COVID-19 vaccinations – Services Australia
- Review our website and/or Facebook page regularly for the latest information and updates.
For the latest information and updates check out the below link to the NSW Health website including locations of current cases and areas where increased testing has been recommended:
Important patient information regarding changes in billing for TeleHealth appointments.
As of Tuesday the 06/10/2020, we are no longer offering bulk billing TeleHealth for phone appointments.
Telehealth appointments will be the same price as face to face appointments and their Medicare rebates will also be the same.
For more information, please see our updated Practice Fees here.
If you are suffering financial hardship that impacts your ability to access care, please discuss with our doctor.
Well done Newcastle! Great work containing COVID19!
Due to no documented current local spread, from Monday 1st September, Blackbutt Doctors is again able to reduce precautions.
Read on for what has changed:
- Appointments will no longer be limited to 15 minutes.
- Some non urgent tasks, such ear syringing, routine ECG and skin checks, are again being offered.
- We are still offering telehealth, but if you are well, we prefer you do come in.
- However, if you have any respiratory symptoms, fever, are awaiting the results of a COVID test or have been directed to self isolate, please do not come in, use a telehealth appointment.
- Blue and Orange Clinic are operating unchanged.
