Used by general practitioners and authorised health professionals to notify the Department of Human Services when an individual has a valid medical contraindication or natural immunity that exempts them from vaccination. It records the reason for exemption, applicable vaccines, and evidence such as clinical diagnosis or laboratory results. Heidi automatically pre-fills the patient’s details and relevant clinical information from the consultation, helping clinicians complete accurate exemption notifications quickly and in compliance with national immunisation requirements.
The purpose of the Australian Immunisation Register Medical Exemption Notification form (IM011) is for a general practitioner to notify the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) that an individual has a valid medical reason for vaccine exemption. This form documents exemptions due to either a medical contraindication or confirmed natural immunity. Once recorded by the AIR, the exemption is recognized for immunisation requirements related to welfare payments and childcare eligibility, as defined by the Australian Government Department of Human Services.
As a general practitioner, you complete and sign this form to notify the Australian Immunisation Register of a patient's vaccine exemption. You are responsible for recording the patient's details, the clinical reason for the exemption, and any supporting evidence. You provide your Medicare provider number and a declaration that the information is complete and correct. The completed and signed form is then mailed or faxed to the Department of Human Services for processing.
An Immunisation Register (IM011.1609) PDF includes the individual's personal details, the type of exemption, and the general practitioner's verification.
The form requires you to certify that a contraindication meets the strict criteria outlined in the relevant professional handbook. Common patient beliefs about exemptions, such as egg allergy or a family history of adverse events, are not valid reasons. You must ensure the documented contraindication, like previous anaphylaxis to a vaccine or significant immunocompromise, aligns with the defined standards. This adds a layer of clinical and documentary responsibility to completing the form accurately.
When notifying the register of natural immunity to a disease like measles or varicella, you must have confirmed evidence. This confirmation can be from laboratory serology results or a documented clinical diagnosis. Simply recording a patient's self-reported history of the disease is insufficient. You are responsible for verifying that the evidence is on file before you record the exemption, which can involve tracking down old pathology results or chart notes.
The list of named vaccines on the form is fixed, but the specific products available and their codes can change. The current version of this form predates some significant updates to the immunisation framework. This means you must be certain that the vaccine you are selecting on the form corresponds correctly to the modern equivalent and the patient's specific history, adding a potential point of confusion or error to the documentation process.
Finding the patient’s Medicare reference number, address, and your own provider number slows down the paperwork. Heidi pre-populates the entire individual details block, including the patient’s Medicare card number, reference number, name, date of birth, and address from their structured profile. This gives you a completed section as a starting point, letting you focus on the clinical details of the exemption.
To claim natural immunity, you need proof. Heidi pulls prior serology results for hepatitis B, measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella directly from the patient's pathology record. It flags whether laboratory confirmation is on file or if the basis for immunity is clinical diagnosis only. This allows you to verify the evidence quickly, without searching through the entire clinical history yourself.
For a medical contraindication, you need to connect the exemption to a specific prior event. Heidi surfaces the patient's documented allergy and immunisation adverse event history from the clinical record. This helps you confirm whether the exemption is grounded in a prior anaphylactic reaction to a specific vaccine or component. You review and confirm the output before Heidi generates the completed notification, ready for your signature.
Auto-fill with Heidi
Click "Auto-fill Form with Heidi" to open the form in Heidi and complete the fields straight from your note, no copying and pasting.
Review and edit
Check the pre-filled details and make any changes before finalising the form.
Download or save
Download the completed form or save it directly into your patient records and workflows.