Hepatitis B vaccination scheme fails — doctors

Press, 16 August 1988, Page 34

Hepatitis B vaccination scheme fails — doctors

PA Wellington A Tauranga medical centre says the Health Department’s drive to stamp out hepatitis B has touched barely a quarter of its pre-school patients.

In a letter to the “Medical Journal,” the centre’s four doctors say the figure indicates a failure of the department’s scheme — a failure which they say could have been avoided if general practitioners had been given responsibility for administering the vaccine. The department this year set up clinics throughout New Zealand where children under the age of five could be vaccinated against hepatitis B. General practitioners can administer the injections but are not entitled to the $7.65 fee paid by the Government for other vaccinations.

“We think it is high time the Health Department came to the party and allowed general practitioners to vaccinate, supplying the vaccine free and allowing us to claim the normal vaccination fee,” the doctors said.

A survey of their preschool patients showed 26 per cent had been vaccinated by the department and 28 per cent had been vaccinated by the centre, leaving 46 per cent uncovered. The figure did not include new-borns, who are vaccinated at the department’s expense under a different programme. The Health Department’s vaccinations coordinator, Dr Nigel Ashworth, said the Tauranga doctors’ figures did not correspond with national averages.

Early indications were that about 80 per cent of pre-schoolers had been vaccinated and that figure would rise as the health system caught up with those who had been missed.

With almost 250,000 children involved, it would have cost $7.65 million if general practioners had administered the four-injection programme. The department did not have the money.

But one of the Tauranga doctors, Dr Andrew Humphrey, said all the department had spent

would be wasted if its scheme did not result in high vaccination rates.

He acknowledged that his figures did not reflect the rest of the country but said regardless, over-all rates would be better if general practitioners had been responsible for vaccinations. They were better placed to ensure nobody was missed, he said.

The immunisation campaigner, Mr Sandy Milne, who pioneered the low dose programme adopted by the department, said if the Tauranga doctors’ figures were correct it indicated the department had failed dismally in the city.

“But to assume that doctors could have done it better on their own is very simplistic,” he'said. Mr Milne said that without rushing and with two untrained volunteers helping, he had administered 100 vaccinations in an hour.

“There can be no justification for doctors being paid $7.65 for such a simple task,” he said.