Children still missing out on getting jabs

Most district health boards, including all seven serving the upper North Island, fall well below the childhood immunisation target set under a succession of governments.

The present National Government has spiced up the DHB health targets by publishing the results in national and local newspapers, but many, including the aim for 95 per cent of 2-year-olds to be fully immunised, have long stared back at health planners.

The previous Labour-led Government put DHBs on the path to compliance in 2007, when the national score was just 67 per cent.

Now 10 of the 21 boards have surpassed 85 per cent, the target set for next July. The target rises to 90 per cent for 2011 and the original 95 per cent by mid-2012.

The top health board in the upper North Island - in a target that is as much about GPs and primary health organisations as DHBs - is Waitemata, on 83 per cent, giving it 12th place nationally.

South Canterbury leads the country, on 94 per cent. Lakes, serving the Rotorua-Taupo area, is last, on 65 per cent, although data problems, which now dog immunisation figures less than they used to, are said to account for some of this poor performance.

The Medical Association says such variations in healthcare depending on one's address, a common finding of the health targets, are unacceptable.

"The lower figures in some DHBs are concerning and show a failure to protect children in some parts of the country," said association chairman Dr Peter Foley. "We need much greater national consistency."

The aim of the immunisation target is to eradicate a number of diseases which can be prevented by vaccines - as has happened with polio - or at least improve the protection of babies and young children in the case of whooping cough.

"We would eradicate measles if we had 95 per cent," said Dr Nikki Turner, the director of the Immunisation Advisory Centre at Auckland University. "We've nearly eradicated HiB [haemophilus influenzae B] and probably just above 90 per cent is enough. Mumps and rubella we could get rid of at 95."

Dr Turner said the target was set at 95 per cent because the parents of 3 to 5 per cent of children chose not to have them vaccinated. It was a realistic target achieved by other Western nations.

It could largely be achieved within the current state funding and using existing systems. Reaching the last few per cent, however, would be difficult without extra funding, because they were poor, moved often and daily faced acute problems - making them difficult for health services to reach.

But Dr Turner said Hawkes Bay, despite its significant areas of poverty, had achieved 91 per cent and had closed the gap between Maori and non-Maori.

The Health Ministry's chief adviser on child and youth health, Pat Tuohy, said Hawkes Bay had supported the areas identified as needing support by working with community leaders.