Dr Lily Fraser, GP and clinical director at Turuki Healthcare in South Auckland, explains that because of the high risk of mahi Turukii does, it had already made it mandatory for all employees to be fully vaccinated.
“We're really grateful that the government has also taken that stance,” she says.
To retain their employment, most healthcare professionals will be expected to be completely vaccinated against Covid-19 by December 1 this year.
Meanwhile, studies suggest GPs are failing to find resources to help increase the number of Māori and Pasifika people vaccinated in their communities.
Fraser believes the majority of health professionals will support the mandate but understands the difficulties of people feeling they don’t have a choice.
“But at the moment we've got to take that bigger safety view of things that actually we don't want to be the people that are passing it onto our patients.”
Turuki was the first clinic to administer managed isolation vaccines and the first to be able to vaccinate in-clinic, according to Fraser, which has been critical in ensuring that whānau feel a feeling of ownership, involvement, and celebration surrounding receiving the vaccination.
“We've just started also doing home visits for whānau who have mobility issues or reasons they can't come in and get a vaccination done.”
Fraser says she feels disheartened knowing what’s to come and believes that whānau are the ones who will suffer from it.,“I think that having Delta in the country has really upped the ante for a lot of whānau.”
“Unfortunately, we are still really struggling to get our numbers to where we want to be. We want that 95% and we can do it.”