Northern Health recently closed our mass vaccination hub at Plenty Ranges Arts & Convention Centre (PRACC).

PRACC was opened in June 2021 in collaboration with City of Whittlesea to help vaccinate as many community members as possible during the early stages of the vaccine rollout in Victoria.

Over the last 12 months, Northern Health has provided over 340,000 vaccines to the community.

On behalf of all staff at the vaccination hub, Shanice Molinaro, Nurse Unit Manager, expressed her gratitude to a number of teams across Northern Health for their incredible work during this time.

“A very big thank you to you and all of your teams. It would not have been possible to administer over 340,000 doses to our community without all of yours and your teams support!” she said.

Shanice explained the vaccination hub at PRACC involved a lot of collaboration across Northern Health, including input from nursing staff, pharmacy, ISS, security, concierge, cleaning staff and ward clerks.

When asked what she is most proud of during her time at PRACC, Shanice said, “The amount of vaccines we have administered to our community and the effective processes that were ever changing at the hub. All of the staff involved and the adaptability of everyone.”

Over the course of working at PRACC, the team’s biggest challenge was the continuous changes and regulations in responding to the current COVID-19 situation.

“The entire vaccination hub experience was memorable. The team was incredible. I specifically remember in September 2021 when our vaccination lines and demand was high and the team banded together extremely well to work through it. Most staff stayed back to assist until midnight,” Shanice explained.

Throughout it all, our staff played a huge role in keeping the community safe during the pandemic and we are very proud of them.

Some feedback from the community include:

“Thanks for all the staff that have been involved. I’ve been in the line three times and it was so smoothly run – well done!”

“An amazing team who worked so very hard. You all deserve a medal.”

“Such an amazing job done by our amazing staff – you should all be so very proud of your amazing work ethic.”

Featured image: Our dedicated volunteers welcoming community members at PRACC