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Immunisation

Increasing immunisation coverage is a national priority and COORDINARE is working with primary health care providers to maintain and increase our region’s coverage rate. Read our Prevention initiatives statement for more information. 

The region's latest immunisation quarterly update to December 2018 shows:

  • 94.9% of all children were fully immunised at 1 year
  • 92.3% of all children were fully immunised at 2 years
  • 95.34% of all children were fully immunised at 5 years

 

 

Immunisation rates recorded for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children aged 2 and 5 years continue to be lower than overall NSW figures. However, 96.5% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged 5 are now immunised.

Overall vaccination rates for children in South Eastern NSW remain higher than the NSW state and Australian national averages for all ages, however there are some areas where immunisation rates are potentially too low to prevent the outbreak of disease.

Watch this video to see how Centre Health Unanderra has been using clinical data auditing to improve their immunisation rates:

Cold chain AIR QI activities Education Resources Patient information

The National Vaccine Storage Guidelines – Strive for 5 (3rd edition) has useful information on the cold chain. 

For more information, please phone the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District (LHD) Public Health Unit on 1300 066 055 or the Southern NSW Local Health District (LHD) Public Health Unit on (02) 4824 1837. Ask to speak to the Public Health Officer. 

The Ministry of Health requires practices to complete a cold chain breach reporting form when vaccines are exposed to temperatures outside 2-8oC.

Remember to follow the principles of safe vaccine storage management to ensure safe and effective vaccines are given to your patients. NSW Health has developed a Safe Vaccine Storage Checklist to ensure you are completing all safe storage steps as well as a Cold Chain Toolkit to support immunisation providers.

The NSW Health Cold Chain Management training module can be accessed from the NSW Health cold chain webpage.

If you do identify an issue with the cold chain, please follow these steps:

  • DO NOT discard vaccines but quarantine the vaccines in the fridge and label ‘do not use’
  • notify the practice manager or relevant staff member
  • contact the PHU on 1300 066 055 as soon as possible during business hours
  • download the data logging report for the past week, including the cold chain breach
  • forward data logging report and a scanned copy of your twice daily temperature checks chart to the PHU
  • the PHU will send you a cold chain breach reporting form to complete
  • the PHU will provide information as to the viability of the vaccines according to manufacturer’ s vaccine thermostability data
  • you may be required to label vaccines subjected to CCB but still able to be used
  • documentation of staff completion of the NSW online module for Vaccine Storage and Cold Chain Management (click here)
  • there may also be a requirement to have the fridge serviced and provide 3 days of data logging before restocking is allowed.

The Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) is a national register that records vaccinations given to people of all ages in Australia. Practices need to record all vaccines given to children, for more information go to Australian Immunisation Register for health professionals. Ensure your practice has completed the most recent software update so that vaccination records are reported to the AIR successfully. 

COORDINARE has created a Digital Health Series - HPOS & Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) video to assist practice staff in accessing AIR via HPOS. The video has also been divided into individual sections for quick, specific topic reference including:

To check for upcoming education workshops, please refer to our events calendar.

See links below for more opportunities to participate in workshops and/or online learning modules on immunisation:

For further information contact our Engagement and Coordination team at info@coordinare.org.au or 1300 069 002.

Useful information for pregnant women, children, adults, travel, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, seniors and workers is available on the Immunise Australia website.

A guide to help parents understand childhood immunisation, including immunisation myths and realities, is available here. Parents and teens can also access HPV information here.

The Department of Health has created a new resource called ‘Following vaccination - what to expect and what to do’, available to download or order as a tear-off pad. This resource provides easy-to-read information on common reactions that may occur after vaccinations.

Other useful resources for patients include:

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