Blood, Sweat & Tears From Auckland GPs Is Getting Patients Vaccinated, Says ProCare

Going the extra mile and putting in the hard yards, has seen 40.1% (53 practices) of ProCare’s 167 general practices across Tāmaki Makaurau having in excess of 85% of their patients receive their first does of the Pfizer vaccination.

Additionally, more than two thirds (113 practices) now have 50% or more of their patients who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Bindi Norwell, Group CEO at ProCare says: "Over the last few months general practices have been working extremely hard to reach as many patients as possible and to vaccinate them in order to provide protection against COVID-19.

"This means, that by Christmas we should be getting closer to reaching the target of having 90% of our patient database fully vaccinated, and means that people will be able to have the summer holiday they’re all desperately looking forward to" she continues.

Achieving these sorts of rates has required a lot of hard graft.

"We now have 75 general practices across Auckland who are vaccinating patients; the majority of which have come onboard since we went into lockdown, which has meant things such as vaccinating in car parks and having to deal with all of the difficulties that come with a lockdown.

"Across our network, practices have really had to put in the blood, sweat and tears to get patients vaccinated especially as the raft of mis-information on social media continues to grow and we’re reaching patients who may be vaccine-hesitant," says Norwell.

"Practices are making hundreds of phone calls a week to make sure no patient misses out on the opportunity to be vaccinated. They are also working closely with churches or iwi groups to offer patients vaccination locations that may align more closely with cultural requirements," she points out.

"Ultimately, it’s about making sure we can vaccinate as many people as possible, so that Aucklanders can return to ‘normality’ as soon as possible and enjoy the freedoms we’re all so used to," she concludes.

ProCare has created a ‘one stop shop’ for anyone who has questions about the COVID-19 vaccination. This can be found on ProCare's public website.

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