[LINK] The Australian COVID vaccination booking platform

[Stephen Loosley]

HealthEngine to build Australia's COVID vaccination booking platform

By Asha Barbaschow | March 9, 2021 -- 03:24 GMT (14:24 AEDT) | Topic: Innovation
https://www.zdnet.com/article/healthengine-to-build-australias-covid-vaccination-booking-platform/


HealthEngine has this Tuesday announced being selected by the federal government to build its COVID-19 vaccination booking platform.

The COVID-19 Vaccination Information and Booking Service will be launched by the Department of Health in the coming weeks to support the vaccination rollout.

HealthEngine said Health's "end-to-end COVID-19 vaccination solution" would allow patients to locate and book appointments with designated vaccine clinics via a service finder based on the HealthDirect-run National Health Services Directory (NHSD).

The platform is touted by the Perth-based company as a standalone booking option that will help clinics get online quickly for COVID vaccinations, where they don't already have an online booking system.

The booking platform will be available to approved health service providers who are part of the national COVID-19 vaccine rollout including GP clinics, pharmacies, and state-run vaccination clinics.

It's being fast-tracked to meet challenging deadlines, HealthEngine said.

"Given the very tight timeframes involved and the complexity of such a project, we are under no illusions about the challenge we have signed up to. However, the opportunity to support a historic public health effort involving millions of Australians by assisting the federal government with a very important piece of national digital health infrastructure, was one we simply couldn't pass up," HealthEngine CEO and founder Dr Marcus Tan said.  ....

Facing the Select Committee on COVID-19 on Tuesday, Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Phil Gaetjens said despite the instances of people being given an overdose of the vaccine, cold chain problems, residents in aged care waiting for their inoculation, the states not fully understanding the Commonwealth's vaccine strategy, and the Defence Force stepping in, rollout of the vaccine to date has been "okay".

"I would put those issues in the category of noise and I think above that, there is a very strong signal that the vaccine is going out okay," he said.

"I think they are teething issues that can happen in any rollout of the logistical proportions that this one is."

According to Gaetjens, in the case of the overdosing, "no harm was done".

"In the whole scheme of things, issues like this will arise and I think the more that people go on about small issues like this, that affects confidence more than the actual impact of those small issues themselves," he continued.

Asked if he was happy with the vaccine rollout so far and if he was confident the government had control of the problems that have arisen, Gaetjens simply responded with, "Yes, I am".

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