About 280 general practices within the Hunter New England and Central Coast Primary Health Network have been approved to begin administering the AstraZeneca vaccine from Monday. But practices say the phone has been "ringing off the hook" with vaccine inquiries while they juggle teething problems with the national booking system and concerns about availability.

"We had four administration staff who spent the entire day declining vaccination appointments due to vaccine unavailability," Dr Ben Seckold, of Hamilton Doctors, said on Wednesday.

"It is absolute chaos. Ten phone lines have been in use all day, and 90 per cent of calls are not regular patients."

Hunter GPs have told the Newcastle Herald they have been drip-fed information about the vaccine rollout, which made preparing for the "huge logistical challenge" more difficult.

Some had found out this week they needed a "special barcode scanner" for the vaccines, "just days" before they were expected to start vaccinating. It comes as the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) urged patients not to take their vaccine frustrations out on admin staff following "widespread" reports of people behaving in a "disrespectful and aggressive manner" towards those answering the phones.

Dr Seckold's practice is expecting to receive 80-to-100 doses of the vaccine on Friday, but they had been advised to wait until they have it "in the building" before taking appointments.

A Lake Macquarie GP has said the process has been a "shambles". His practice had not been coming up in the national booking system at all, despite being approved to start vaccinating on Monday.

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Dr Seckold said his practice was looking to vaccinate their most high-risk patients as soon as possible, but the process could take "months".

"It has been extremely challenging given the lack of communication from the government to GP practices about the rollout," he said.

"I am unsure how we are expected to vaccinate patients who are not regular patients of the practice. We have thousands of patients on our books, many of whom are high risk. It will take us months just to vaccinate our own patients.

"We are, however, keen to play our part and help."

In a joint statement, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) and Australian Medical Association (AMA) said the rollout of the vaccine was a "huge logistical challenge" constrained by the available supply.

Australia's peak GP bodies said the influx of patients seeking to make bookings for COVID-19 vaccinations was encouraging, but the government must "urgently clarify" the booking process for patients to help them better understand the process.

"It's clear the government needs to make it easy for patients and general practices alike to manage bookings for COVID-19 vaccinations and be clear about how long patients may have to wait before they can get an appointment," AMA president, Dr Omar Khorshid, said.

He said unlike the flu season, where 15 million doses were already stockpiled, this rollout relied on a weekly supply of COVID-19 vaccine doses that was capped.

"This means that general practices will have only a modest number of doses available for patients for now," he said. "GPs will be following strict priority criteria to ensure that vaccines are prioritised towards those who need it most."

RACGP president Dr Karen Price called for calm.

"I understand that patients are eager to receive their vaccination and that is positive news; however, I plead with all people to please be respectful when speaking to receptionists and administrative staff managing this huge volume of calls about vaccines on top of their day-to-day presentations," she said. "They are doing their best in very challenging circumstances. It may be a frustrating experience, but if you are kept on hold for an extended period or told that a booking can't be made yet due to uncertainty about when vaccine supplies will be delivered, my message is simple - please be patient."

Dr Price advised patients to hold off contacting GP clinics until general practices could achieve greater certainty on how many AstraZeneca vaccines would be delivered and when.

"Many practices will already be going through their patient records to identify who is eligible and will reach out to their usual patients to organise an appointment," she said. "You will not miss out."

To find out more about the vaccine rollout, click here.

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