Jabs at the staff
OF all the stories that could lead the evening TV news or dominate the front page of newspapers, this topic won’t be one of them.
Last weekend the Federal Government announced an apparently “radical” new plan to move or even ban shifts for aged care workers who refuse to have a flu vaccination.
It also announced that from early May it will be mandatory for every aged care facility to offer a free flu vaccine to all staff.
This latest announcement is in response to the 1100 influenzarelated deaths in Australia during last year’s influenza season, with people aged 65 years and older accounting for more than 90 per cent of cases.
Commonsense says that both ideas are worthy but stop short of making the vaccinations for age care staff compulsory.
Shocking word, compulsory, as it removes our right to selfdetermination, doesn’t it? Big Brother telling us what to do without any recourse and as with all legislation there are potential problems — and I can see plenty of them coming up.
New South Wales has gone even further with Health Minister Brad Hazzard declaring flu jabs will for the first time be mandatory for all staff in “high risk” hospital wards in a bid to stop a repeat of last year’s horror season.
Doctors and nurses who work in neonatal, maternity, child and adult intensive care, transplant and cancer wards will have to prove they have been vaccinated by June 1 or they will be moved or forced to wear a specialised medical mask.
The tough new policy will also allow hospitals to sack staff who refuse to comply. Tough measures, but they are in line with many other countries.
There are about 200,000 men and women in aged care facilities in Australia and because of government cutbacks and the encroachment of big, private and overseas companies into the field, the service is under great pressure. This pressure manifests itself in staff shortages, because of the very deliberate “save a shift” policy of some of the providers, where staff who call in sick are not replaced.
Older members of our community hardly need to have other problems caused by irresponsible workers forced on them.
These communities need the protection that compulsory flu vaccinations will offer. It is quite simply not enough to make the provision of the vaccinations mandatory.
Currently the level of staff who choose to prepare themselves for the flu season is well below the “herd” protection level.
The latest report by the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance on behalf of the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency had some disturbing findings: out of all residential homes only 3.5 per cent had a staff participation level of vaccinations considered sufficient to not put the people in their care at risk. Only a third of aged care centres achieved the magical herd protection level of over 80 per cent for their clients, your mum or dad or grandparents.
Congratulations to the Federal Government for taking what I consider to be the first step by making the availability of flu vaccinations mandatory for all aged care homes, but please go to the next step and make it compulsory for all staff to comply.
Control protocols are already in place in the better residences to ensure visitors are not likely to infect the clients when they visit, so how can it not be compulsory for the nurses and carers to be flu neutral?
Speaking of the NSW compulsory measure, Influenza Coalition’s Paul Van Buynder welcomed the new policy — which is common in Canada and the US — and said it’s rare for more than half of hospital staff to be inoculated against influenza when it’s voluntary immunisation. That figure needs to get up to at least the herd protection level to protect our most vulnerable older members of the community.
Just a word to the antivaccination loonies out there, please don’t bother responding to this article as it is only intended for rational, considerate and caring individuals. Flu vaccinations will not cause autism, Rocky Mountain Q fever and is not part of a government plot to sedate the nation.