Rubella immunity required

Press, 17 April 1982, Page 12

Rubella immunity required

All staff working in obstetric and neo-natal units in hospitals in the North Canterbury area will have to be immunised against rubella as a condition of their employment. This includes male and female staff members, house surgeons and nurses alike. This policy has been adopted by the health services committee of the North Canterbury Hospital Board. In the past, the committee was told, only female staff had been vaccinated against rubella, and only on a twoyearly basis. Staff beginning duties in obstetrics and neonatal units within that twoyear period were not immunised. The policy was recommended for adoption by the medical superintendent-in-chief of the board, Dr R. A. Fairgray. The policy says “that all North Canterbury Hospital Board staff who work inobstetric or neo-natal units be required to have their rubella status determined on commencement of employment and that a rubella vaccination be offered those staff who are lacking rubella antibodies.” ‘K’ wards 'K' wards at Princess Mar-

garet Hospital were officially assessment and rehabilitation units and. except in exceptional circumstances, they were not to be used for the admission of acute or long-stay patients, the committee was told. The information, reiterating the board’s policy about the function of the wards, will be circulated to the appropriate institutions as the result of concern expressed after two patients,

previously housed in geriatric institutions, were admitted as acute patients at the hospital. The situation had arisen because the patients’ financial resources to pay .for private hospital accommodation had been depleted, and there was 'no subsidy available under the Geriatric Hospital Special Assistance Scheme to have them retained or appropriately placed in a suitable geriatric unit.