Temporary changes to vaccination services at Eleanor Clinic
We wanted to give you an update on the status of vaccinations at Eleanor Clinic.
As you would have experienced, we take extreme care at Eleanor Clinic to ensure that all our patients have minimal risk of exposure while with us. In fact, we have been contacted by other clinics who have adopted our COVID-19 safety protocols, which is humbling. However, our high safety standards take considerable effort regarding time and staff on our side.
The recent rise in people contracting COVID-19 in Victoria shows that there is currently a bigger degree of community transmission than there was previously. This means there is a somewhat higher risk of catching this illness when out and about in Melbourne than there was at any stage before.
To us this means doubling down on our already extensive safety measures, particularly when performing vaccinations at Eleanor Clinic. These efforts are so time consuming that we can currently only offer vaccinations to those with the highest clinical need.
Those groups are:
- Infants up to the age of 4 months (incl. 4 months vaccinations)
- Pregnant women
- People with immune-deficiencies or severe chronic disease as assessed by their treating GP
Please accept our apologies that we will have to defer immunisations for other groups than those above for a few weeks until the number of new COVID-19 cases within our community has decreased. This may mean that your child older than 4 months of age or other adult will have their immunisations with us a few weeks later than originally planned. In our mind this is currently the safest option.
To be clear: this is only for a few weeks until the COVID-19 numbers come down again and we can somewhat reduce our stringent safety protocols. Immunisations are very important – which is why we are focussing on being able to provide them for those in highest need. We’ll keep you updated on any changes.
As always, please speak to your friendly Eleanor Clinic GP with any questions you might have.
We know all this first hand because at Eleanor Clinic we decided from the first days that we would remain open for our patients throughout this challenge. Yes, there were weeks and weeks of what seemed like non-stop work to completely rethink how we provide health-care in a world that at times appears like it’s been turned upside down. We also had to find ways so that particularly our little patients weren’t scared of the masks and gowns we wear to keep them safe. It now seems that most children that come to us think what we’re doing to keep them safe is a big, very funny game. That’s alright with us. In fact, we take that as a big compliment!