We are delighted to share with you our new community health initiative to partner with Albert Park College and St Michael’s Grammar School to vaccinate their VCE students against COVID-19 prior to their upcoming examinations (the Initiative). 

You may have observed that our Initiative was reported by the Herald Sun on Friday 27 August 2021 in a story written by Susie O’Brien titled “Elite school offers private jabs for its students” (the Article).

According to the Article:
 ‘’Albert Park College wrote to parents on Friday telling them Port Melbourne Medical Centre had “kindly reached out to the college to offer our year 12 students Pfizer COVID-19 vaccinations’’.

The shots will be administered on Sunday September 12, with the school telling parents it is “very happy to be able to streamline this opportunity”.”

The article’s header states “As supply issues plague access to Covid jabs, a growing number of Melbourne schools are using a network of GP parents to help student’s access appointments.’’

Port Melbourne Medical is deeply offended by the reporting of our Initiative by the Herald Sun. Regretfully, the article is inaccurate, misleading and written by the Herald Sun without any invitation for comment. 

For the record, Port Melbourne Medical wishes to confirm:

• The owners, staff and GP doctors at Port Melbourne Medical DO NOT have any children who currently attend or previously attended either school; and
• This is not a case where either school has used their networks, connections or their status to partner with Port Melbourne Medical to vaccinate their VCE students. To the contrary, the Initiative originated with Port Melbourne Medical who made the approach to each school, motivated to protect VCE students in its community by making their vaccinations accessible prior to their upcoming examinations.

Port Melbourne Medical is taking steps to report its concerns about the Article and make formal complaints to the Australian Press Council and to the Editor-In-Chief of the Herald Sun. Port Melbourne Medical will be seeking the publication of an apology, a correction of the inaccurate and misleading statements and the publication of balancing material which reflects the true intention of the Initiative. 

WHAT ARE THE FACTS?

• Both Albert Park College and St Michael’s College are located in close proximity to our practice and we currently have a high number of patients who are VCE students from these schools
• Port Melbourne Medical offered identical assistance to both schools
• Albert Park College is not an “Elite private school” but a Government school
• The schools are not paying for any staff/doctors/nurses or vaccines and the vaccines are part of the Federal Government’s allocation of Pfizer vaccinations to Port Melbourne Medical
• The costs of staff/doctors/nurses are absorbed by Port Melbourne Medical and it is expected that the Initiative will result in the Practice incurring costs (as opposed to making a profit)
• Port Melbourne Football Club has kindly offered its venue rent free to the schools for these vaccinations days
• Premier Dan Andrews announced on Thursday 26 August 2021 that VCE students were a designated high priority group. As Port Melbourne Medical has done in the past with other high-risk groups, we took the initiative to reach out and offer our assistance. At this stage, there is no other plan in place to achieve this
• Approval was sought by Port Melbourne Medical and given by the Federal Department of Health before both schools were approached.

WHY PORT MELBOURNE MEDICAL STARTED THE INITIATIVE?

As we have been a dedicated Respiratory Clinic for the past 18 months, we have a larger allocation of vaccines than regular GP clinics

To date Port Melbourne Medical has administered in excess of 15,000 vaccines and continues to vaccinate the Port Melbourne community. We have recently increased the number of vaccine appointments and we remain committed to adding more appointments  as increased supply occurs

Port Melbourne Medical’s main priority is to protect the local community and our dedicated vaccination clinic is currently the only large scale local solution

We have the proven capacity to execute the Initiative and our vaccination clinic has run without incident since March 2021

The VCE-clinic is being conducted on a Sunday to avoid disruption to the schools, VCE students and our current patients 

Early on we identified our high-risk patients and these patients have all been vaccinated or offered the vaccines. VCE students at the identified schools are not taking them from the needy (who have had ample opportunities to get vaccinated). 

The expected number of vaccines (Dose 1) represents 6.8% of our monthly allocation.

Our Vaccination Clinic has been 100% accessible to everyone in Port Melbourne, and approximately 50% of people who have attended were not registered as clinic patients

The under 30 age group represents a high proportion of current cases.

No other plan is in place to help these VCE students with important exams on the horizon.

We are delighted to help these students, who have had a very challenging 18 months; they are our future and should be given every support possible as they approach their exams.

An outbreak through this cohort would be devastating and extremely disruptive to the students, schools and their futures.

We do not have an infinite supply of the Pfizer vaccine. We have focussed on our local area as an act of goodwill, with a deliberate focus on high-risk groups, the majority of whom are not students. It is not our responsibility to offer the vaccination to all Victorian VCE students - we have just provided a local solution after it was announced by the State Government that year 12’s should have their vaccinations prior to their examinations.