However, doctors were just as confused about the rollout, announced by the federal government, due to uncertainty about when they would receive doses of the vaccine to administer to patients.

Despite the surge in calls made to GPs, medical practices taking part in the first week of phase 1b of the vaccine rollout have been unable to schedule appointments for eligible patients due the lack of information about when they would get vaccine doses.

By midday on Wednesday, one Canberra GP clinic received more than twice the number of calls it gets in a single day, forcing it to put on additional staff to deal with the demand.

Vaccinations as part of phase 1b of the rollout are due to begin on Monday, but some GPs have told The Canberra Times they were yet to be told when doses would arrive.

Some practices said they were caught off-guard by the government's announcement on Wednesday of the 1b start date. The announcement also led to the federal government's vaccine booking website being hit with technical issues just hours after it was launched due to the demand.

My Medical Practice Charnwood director Shavran Bolli said the clinic had been told to expect doses to arrive on Friday but to also anticipate potential delays.

Due to the delay in receiving vaccine doses, he said the clinic had been unable to book people in to get the jab and told patients to call next week instead.

"Every second call is about the vaccination, and by midday we already received 60 calls on it," he said.

"Everyone wants to know when it starts, and I don't want to start specific vaccine bookings until we get the doses."

A total of 18 GP clinics in Canberra will be part of 1b, with three more in the Queanbeyan area.

Registered GP clinics will receive 50 to 400 doses of the vaccine a week, depending on demographics in the area and expected patients numbers.

Mr Bolli said his Charnwood clinic would receive close to 400 doses a week.

"We've notified patients calling through now to call back next week, but they would be able to get in on the day on Monday if they called then," he said.

However, if the vaccines aren't received by Friday, it's unclear when the vaccine rollout would be able to go ahead. Similar scenarios were reported by other clinics in Canberra that were scheduled to be a part of the vaccine rollout.

At the Ainslie Family Practice, they received more than 500 calls from patients inquiring about vaccine appointments before noon, when the daily call average numbers around 200.

Two extra staff members had to be called in to deal with the demand.

Practice manager Kylee Hjorth said they expected their shipment of vaccines to arrive by the end of the week, with patients so far being booked in to receive the jab up until March 31.

"A lot of other clinics got caught up in the situation and were caught off-guard because there's been a lot of people who are eager to get the shot," she said.

Ms Hjorth said the large surge in calls was partly to do with patients from other clinics ringing up to book a vaccine appointment at one of the participating GPs for the first week of phase 1b.

More than 1000 GPs will be involved in the rollout from Monday but more are expected to follow in coming weeks. Department of Health secretary Brendan Murphy urged for patience from the public. "It is going to take us many weeks to get through 1b, and while some GP clinics are coming online next week, they won't be releasing appointments until they are sure of vaccine deliveries, which are coming in the next day or two," Professor Murphy said.

"Please do not badger your GPs, take your time. Everyone in 1b will be vaccinated in coming weeks, but it will take a while for this to scale up."

Australian Medical Association ACT president Antonio Di Dio said clinics were used to dealing with large surges in calls during a health crisis.

"What happened on Wednesday was the online booking system froze for a lot of people and didn't work and people then did the right thing to ring their GP, and things did get hectic and busy," Dr Di Dio said. "If for some reason the rollout is delayed by a few days, that might be a bit frustrating, but it would not present catastrophic danger to the community due to the low case numbers in Australia."

Vaccine appointments will be bulk-billed, with clinics that charge for a consultation being in breach of the vaccine rollout. ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the territory's approach in the vaccine rollout was to work behind the scenes with the federal government to ensure a smooth transition. "This is a massive logistical exercise across the country, that's well understood," Mr Barr said.

"I've been aware that there have been risk points associated with the vaccination program, and that was going to be communications with us, communications with health professionals and communication with the general public."

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