The Federal Government has picked tech firm HealthEngine to build Australia's vaccine booking platform. 

The Department of Health has selected HealthEngine to build the booking platform behind Australia’s new COVID-19 vaccination information and booking service.

The company now has a matter of weeks to complete a program that allows patients to locate clinics and book appointments.

It is a positive headline for the company that has faced bad news in recent years, after it was hacked in 2018 and taken to court by the ACCC on claims that it provided users' personal health information to law firms without their knowledge.

The new vaccine system should give GP clinics, pharmacies and state-run vaccination clinics a platform to manage bookings if they do not already have one. 

HealthEngine says the booking platform will be “fast-tracked” to meet the deadline.

“The HealthEngine designed solution is suitable as a standalone booking option that complies with government requirements around accessibility, privacy and security,” the company said.

“This option will help clinics to ‘get online’ quickly for Covid vaccinations, where they don’t already have an online booking system.

“Clinics with existing booking systems are encouraged to continue using their systems, to leverage the benefits of a fully integrated booking system.”

HealthEngine founder and CEO Marcus Tan said it is an honour “to be selected by the Department of Health for the job”.

“Given the very tight timeframes involved and the complexity of such a project, we are under no illusions about the challenge we have signed up to,” he said.

“However, the opportunity to support… the federal government with a very important piece of national digital health infrastructure, was one we simply couldn’t pass up.”