Six-month-old Brian Shortland (with the help of dad Richard Shortland) receiving the 1000th vaccination from Kim Hunter.
A job for thousand
The 1000th vaccination was recently given in a successful Waikato campaign to ‘opportunistically’ catch-up a child’s ‘jabs’ during hospital visits.
Kim Hunter, registered nurse and coordinator of Waikato Hospital’s Opportunistic Immunisation Service (HOIS), said the vaccination was a milestone, as previously hospital staff were doing about 14 vaccinations a month and now they were doing between 60 and 80.
The establishment of the HOIS campaign in September last year is thought to have played a large part in the Waikato District Health Board exceeding the Ministry of Health target of 80 per cent immunisation of under-two-year-olds well before the July deadline.
Hunter, who administers many of the immunisations herself, had worked to educate and support staff in wards, clinics and the emergency department to do the immunisations for children whose parents consented. The first rural hospital to pilot the service is Taumarunui, and Thames is to follow.
