Page 904 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 22 March 2017
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immunisation coverage for children aged 12 months. The ACT also often achieves the highest immunisation rates for two and five-year-old children as well. Our efforts in this space are recognised by the commonwealth. The previous minister for health wrote to me in December last year to commend the ACT’s efforts to improve our immunisation rates and noted that we had achieved all four performance benchmarks for vaccination, resulting in a reward payment to the territory of more than $120,000. In saying this, we can always do better and we should not get complacent.
There may be a range of reasons why children in the community are not vaccinated, perhaps due to disadvantage, because they are recent immigrants and do not yet know about our vaccination programs. So we must continue to look for ways to engage with families who may not be up to date with their immunisations to see what else we can do to make it easier for children to get immunised. On this note, ACT Health undertakes a range of activities to educate families on immunisation and also remind parents of vaccinations if they are overdue, as do members of other directorates, notably the Community Services Directorate.
This action includes postcards sent to the parents of all children when they are 12 months, 18 months and four years old to remind them that immunisations will soon be due. Parents of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children also receive postcard reminders at two, four and six months, and a quarterly mail-out to parents of children that are recorded in the Australian immunisation register as overdue for immunisation.
In addition to work that increases vaccination rates in Canberra, the ACT government has acted to increase access for people to get vaccinated. An example of this was the introduction of pharmacist vaccinations for influenza last year, complementing existing immunisation services available through GPs and other primary healthcare providers and workplace vaccination programs. Every year, during the winter months, influenza, or the flu, is responsible for major outbreaks of respiratory illness, and we know that vaccination against the flu is an effective intervention. That is why in time for last year’s flu season the government amended the Medicines, Poisons and Therapeutic Goods Regulation 2008 to enable authorised pharmacists to administer the influenza vaccination to adult patients.
Our pharmacies play an essential role in our community, providing localised access to primary healthcare needs and relieving some pressure on our hospitals from non-critical cases. In 2016 over 30 pharmacies across the ACT administered the flu vaccination, offering a further option to adult patients in the ACT. The improved access and availability of flu vaccines for adults helps increase immunity across the ACT community and last year we had over 3,700 Canberrans take up the offer of conveniently receiving their flu vaccines from ACT pharmacists.
I would like to take this opportunity also to remind Canberrans that winter is coming, and I would encourage people to get the flu vaccination when it becomes available to protect against this nasty virus.
Another vaccination that is incredibly important is for pertussis, or whooping cough. We know that vaccination against whooping cough is the most effective way to avoid whooping cough infection. As part of the national immunisation program, vaccination
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