Swine flu vaccine rollout back on track

28 Aug 2009, 5:07 pm   -   Source: AAP
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The national rollout of a swine flu vaccine is back on track after one of Australia's largest medical insurance providers agreed to cover doctors administering the drug.

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The national rollout of a swine flu vaccine is back on track after one of Australia's largest medical insurance providers agreed to cover doctors administering the drug.

Insurers reportedly didn't want to indemnify doctors offering swine flu injections because inadequate testing and the possibility of spreading infections meant there was too high a risk that patients would sue.

Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer Professor Jim Bishop anticipated the drug would be ready for surgeries around the country by October.

He said indemnity issues were unlikely to hinder the availability of the swine flu vaccine.

"We don't expect this to be an obstacle to the rollout of this program," Prof Bishop told AAP. He said discussions with doctors, insurers and general practitioners were going "extremely well".

Already MDA National has announced it will cover the vaccine's delivery. President Julian Rait said the company's main concern had been the use of multi-dose vials, which have led to disease being spread between patients.

"But if we can educate doctors and communicate effectively with our membership (on using the vials), we think that risk can be minimised if not eliminated," he told ABC Radio.

"In this situation where ... there is a need to deploy the vaccine quickly, we agree with the Commonwealth that we have to approach this from a different perspective."

Mr Rait said it would have been nice if the government underwrote doctors' liability for the vaccinations but it wasn't a major worry for MDA National.

"There are already some subsidies to the indemnity insurance industry that the Commonwealth provides," he said.

"That plus our own solid capital position meant that we are quite comfortable accepting this risk."

Health Minister Nicola Roxon announced in May an order with pharmaceutical giant CSL for 21 million doses of the vaccine - enough to protect at least half the population from the flu strain.

Australian Medical Association president Andrew Pesce said it wasn't fair to give a drug company incentive to produce a product but not offer anything to the doctors administering it.

"CSL was identified by the government to put this vaccine out quickly," he told Sky News.

"So if the government has found it necessary to do that, it obviously has to complete the equation by indemnifying the providers who provide the vaccine."

Dr Pesce warned some insurers may find it difficult to cover the administration of the drug before it was approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).

"Insurers are also bound by their contracts with reinsurers so... especially ahead of TGA approval, it's going to be necessary that the government indicate it will underwrite the insurance for that treatment," he said.

Clinical trials into the flu vaccine have finished but the results are still being analysed. Prof Bishop said early signs were good.

"Early preliminary results have given us some comfort," he said. There are 86 people in intensive care nationwide as a result of swine flu, with 420 patients being treated in hospitals.

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