Clinic paying patients to get checked

A Hamilton clinic is paying people to get vaccinations and pap smears, even though it admits it is unsure about the ethics of the process.

Radius Medical Davies Corner is offering patients $10 cash if they get a pap smear or immunisation.

The approach, backed by the Waikato District Health Board, has boosted injection and smear rates in a country with some of the world's lowest immunisation rates, the clinic's general manager, Navin Rajan told the Waikato Times this week.

"Ethically speaking it is a very grey area. We are not trying to buy patients, this is not bribery, this is getting children vaccinated, examined and women through the door for smear tests that could potentially save their lives," he said.

The clinic has already attracted 28,000 takers, which Mr Rajan said will cost Radius about $35,000.

Similar initiatives have been used in Australia where cash payments for parents have pushed immunisation rates to about 94 per cent.

- NZPA