With doctors bracing for a nasty flu season and cases in Canberra continuing to climb, health authorities are urging people to get vaccinated against influenza. Vaccine access hasn't been easy for everyone, with pharmacists grappling with supply challenges. In particular, the government-funded National Immunisation Program vaccines. The ACT government has announced a string of free pop-up clinics for children older than six months and younger than five years old to receive their flu vaccine.
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00:00As the autumn leaves fall and the temperature drops, the flu risk goes up and there's already troubling symptoms.
00:10Locally within the ACT we've seen about a 56% increase this year in cases compared to the same point in last year.
00:18Last year's flu figures were the worst on record with 4,800 infections.
00:24This year there have already been more than 800 confirmed cases in Canberra.
00:29Which is pretty ominous when we're so early in the season and it's pretty spooky to think about what might happen over the next few months.
00:39The message? Get jabbed.
00:41Help us take the pressure off the health system this year from influenza.
00:45Having a vaccine is the simplest and most effective way we can reduce the likelihood of severe illness.
00:52But access hasn't been easy for everyone.
00:55We're having particular troubles in sourcing the National Immunisation Program vaccines and that's for our most vulnerable Canberrans that are eligible for that government funded vaccine.
01:06We just can't get enough to meet demand.
01:08She says people are being turned away.
01:10This is creating a really distressing and frustrating situation and we've had patients in our community in West Belcon and having to drive to the other side of Canberra to get their flu vaccine.
01:20Health authorities insist there's enough supply to go around.
01:24Sometimes what we see is that there's a little bit of a mismatch between the demand at a particular location and when the next supply delivery is made.
01:34The ACT government has announced a string of free pop-up clinics to get more children vaccinated against the flu.
01:41The service is available for those aged six months to under five.
01:46Our under five year olds and also over 65 year olds can actually get really sick with influenza.
01:52Sometimes even needing hospitalisation and sometimes unfortunately we do see some people pass away.
01:58A warning the worst could be yet to come.