Vaccination remains one of the most important ways to protect older people living in residential aged care. As the 2025 new aged care reform placed greater emphasis on immunisation across all vaccine preventable diseases, WA Primary Health Alliance (WAPHA) is supporting residential aged care homes (RACHs), GPs and pharmacists to strengthen vaccination planning, coordination and reporting.
Through the Residential Aged Care Home Immunisation Support Program, WAPHA is helping homes plan, coordinate and safely deliver onsite vaccinations while meeting key immunisation and reporting requirements. The program is designed to reduce administrative burden, support in-house immunisation services and improve vaccination uptake among residents.
WAPHA has introduced a resident vaccination tracker that provides clear visibility of each resident’s current immunisation status. The program also supports gaining access to the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) for RACHs and promotes appropriate cold chain management practices.
Additional resources are also available to support RACHs, including access to the South Australian immunisation course ‘Understanding Vaccines and the National Immunisation Program’ available at no cost for RACH nurses. WAPHA has also developed a generic all-inclusive consent form that can be tailored for individual homes or used as a guide to update existing consent processes.
The goal is to make immunisation processes easier from start to finish, from identifying residents who are due or overdue for vaccination through to vaccine administration and reporting.
These systems are available at no cost, with funding provided by the WA Department of Health. No reporting or ongoing monitoring is required.
RACHs interested in strengthening their immunisation processes are encouraged to contact WAPHA’s immunisation team to get started by emailing immunisation@wapha.org.au