Vaccinating millions of Australians against COVID-19 in the coming months will be laborious, expensive and a significant logistical effort for general practices.

Last week, Federal Minister for Health Greg Hunt was thanking those practices – there are now more than 5000 of them – that have expressed an interest in signing up to the government’s vaccine rollout.

He is right to. A GP Medicare rebate is being offered to fund the cost of administering the first dose to patients, but there is no startup cash for practices to retool for carrying out vaccinations en masse.

The key requirement listed on the Department of Health’s application form is that they have designated ‘vaccine clinics’ capable of administering vaccinations at short notice and in line with social distancing requirements.