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Staff reaching out

17 November 2008

Every Thursday for the past 18 months, staff from QEII Hospital have been engaging with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community on a whole new level, taking immunisation to the streets.

The Outreach Immunisation Program currently sends staff anywhere within the Bayside area, delivering vaccines to all aged patients.

So far the team of nurses, including an Indigenous Health Worker and an Endorsed Nurse Immuniser, have travelled to shops, homes, parks and workplaces performing vaccinations, and alerting families to the benefits of keeping immunisations up-to-date.

The program incorporates all vaccinations on the National Schedule including Fluvax and Gardasil, with follow-up paperwork ensuring vaccinations are registered in the national and Queensland databases.

The response from the community has been positive, with parents finding the service very helpful as it simplifies the immunisation process.

The safety precautions are also impressive, with staff’s kits including an emergency response pack should anything untoward occur during the vaccine process.

The Outreach Immunisation Program accepts referrals from anyone within the Health Department, as well as general practitioners and the general public, but the patients must be of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent.

The program was established in February 2007 and kick-started with a grant from the Public Health Unit. However, the district is now supporting the program via internal funding.

When statistics showed immunisation rates amongst the Indigenous populations fell far below those of the general population, sometimes by up to 50%, the foundations of the Outreach Immunisation Program were developed.

Results so far show that programs such as this are slowly increasing the number of vaccinated Indigenous people, with the awareness of the importance of vaccinations also spreading throughout the community.

The Outreach Immunisation Program also serves to offer a link for Indigenous populations to other Queensland Health and non-Government services such as speech therapy and physiotherapy.