A Rotorua police officer says workers in the profession have not been prioritised for the Covid-19 vaccine, despite being frontline essential workers.
Essential workers are now a priority group for vaccination and a nationwide vaccination programme is tailored specifically for police but the officer, who spoke on the condition ofanonymity, is frustrated and believes it has taken too long.
A vaccination day at the Rotorua Police station was held at the beginning of the month, however, the officer was disgruntled it had taken five months for a chance for her to be vaccinated.
She was not eligible for the vaccine under the original roll-out timeline.
"We have not been prioritised.
"Some of us have been vaccinated: the frontline staff [working in Managed Isolation Facilities]. But it was only last week [August 11] that they started vaccinating the bulk of the staff."
The officer said those who couldn't make it their vaccination, for whatever reason, had to wait until the national rollout programme opened up. STORY CONTINUES BELOW LIVE BLOG
STORY CONTINUES "Effectively, we weren't prioritised from the beginning and it's been a long time. They've had plenty of time to get the paperwork side of things and training up and running and they just haven't.
"They managed to bring the nurses on to vaccinate us for the flu, we've all had that done and yet, they couldn't get in for this."
Rotorua police station. Photo / Ben Fraser
According to the Ministry of Health and police, a vaccination programme is under way for police staff.
A police spokeswoman said staff were initially in group four under the ministry outline.
A vaccination programme was recently brought forward to the beginning of August, slightly ahead of the rest of the population in group four.
It is being delivered by the police's occupational healthcare provider.
"Our vaccination provider is working hard to make more clinics available to hasten the programme's rollout, and we have also received offers of additional vaccine provision from other providers in the community."
In response to the officer's comments, the spokeswoman said police were on the frontline before the vaccination became available.
"Police deploy into the community as we did before the availability of vaccinations, we make risk assessments when attending incidents, and continue to ensure we use PPE and good hygiene practices to keep ourselves and the community safe."
She would not disclose how many staff had been vaccinated in the Bay of Plenty police district, but said all those who worked with the managed isolation facilities had access to the vaccination since the rollout began.
Ministry of Health Covid-19 vaccination operations group manager Astrid Koornneef said in addition to the nationwide programme tailored specifically for police staff, a number of district health boards had been vaccinating staff.
Koornneef said police could also choose to be vaccinated through the rollout initiated by the health board.
A Lakes District Health Board spokeswoman said, as essential workers, police were now a priority group.
"We have provided bookings access codes to all Rotorua and Taupō police since the adjustments to level four last week and have received massive feedback from this locally.
"Lakes DHB does not want essential workers to be unvaccinated. That is why we have gone out to police since the country moved to alert level four last week."
Police Association president Chris Cahill also expressed frustration this month at the lack of police officers vaccinated.
He said there were around 10,500 sworn and 3000 non-sworn officers and the 4000 police staff who had received at least one dose was not enough.
Cahill told Newstalk ZB's Kerre McIvor he had been trying to get officers pushed up in priority since May.
During level 4, officers continue attending callouts, which were often family-harm related and required officers to move from one home to another, which Cahill said could put them at risk of transmitting the virus.
