'Really concerning' aged care staff COVID-19 vaccination rates in ACT: Health Minister

About 30 per cent of 3119 aged care staff have received one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and just 23 per cent have been fully vaccinated.

Less than 40 per cent of 316 disability workers have been fully vaccinated while 56 per cent of those people have had one dose.

ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said that was concerning, and a push was needed to reach those in insecure work, and provide clear communication on the vaccine.

More than 15,000 ACT health, aged or disability care workers are fully vaccinated but there isn't clear data on exactly that figure across the entire frontline workforce.

The ACT will dedicate half of an additional 4000 Pfizer appointments at mass vaccination hubs to frontline health, residential aged and disability care workers, from next week.

"The challenge is getting to parts of those workforce, particularly people who are in insecure work, who know that they might have a short term side effect from the vaccination, who can't afford to take a day off work," Ms Stephen-Smith said.

"Providing them with that confidence that if they ... need to take the next day off work that they will get remunerated for that, [and] making sure that their employers are encouraging them to get vaccinated."

Ms Stephen-Smith said work was underway between aged care facilities and the federal government for localised vaccine hubs to be set-up in coming weeks.

The federal government has mandated the vaccine for aged care workers with a deadline of September to have that workforce completely vaccinated.

Health Services Union aged care and disability division secretary, Lauren Hutchins said the rollout across those sectors had been an "absolute failure" and "huge investment" was needed for in-reach programs to allow staff to be vaccinated at their workplace.

She added the $11 million set aside for aged care workers to access paid leave didn't go far enough.

"[There needs to be] clear information, workers need the ability to ask questions and feel comfortable to do so and not feel like they're going to be targeted because they want to know more," she said.

Ms Stephen-Smith said frontline workers were a priority for appointments at the Pfizer hubs.

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"We will overbook out clinics with frontline workers, if they call up, we'll put extra appointments for them and make sure that we fit them in," she said.

A change to operations at the ACT government run Pfizer hubs has allowed an increase in appointments.

Ms Stephen-Smith said once patients were vaccinated at Garran and the airport hubs they would wait for 15 minutes in a separate room, rather than remaining in the same chair.

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