$500,000 to update vaccine records
Strapped health board needs cash to bring student records up to date
Ottawa Public Health says it needs a one-time cash infusion of more than half a million dollars to bring backlogged student immunization records up to date in the city.
If that money — $520,000 — is not granted by the province and city (which would be responsible for 25 per cent of the grant), the cash-strapped health board says it will still update immunization records of every child in the city but that work might result in “service disruptions” to other programs.
Ottawa Public Health says it plans to have immunization records of each of the city’s 150,000 students fully updated by the end of September. It will also update immunization records for children in the city’s 240 licensed daycare centres.
Ontario students are required to show proof of immunization against diphtheria, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, meningococcal disease, pertussis (whooping cough) and varicella (chickenpox) to attend school, unless they are exempted for medical, religious or philosophical reasons. The province’s health units must monitor immunization records to make sure students comply.
Ottawa’s health unit stopped fully checking and updating school immunization records across the city last year, saying the transition to a new computer system and budget pressures made the temporary move necessary. It has also stopped surveillance of immunization records at licensed daycares. Both are required under provincial law.
While public health officials argue that Ottawa residents are still well protected against vaccine-preventable diseases, they acknowledge that the move caused a backlog in immunization record keeping and resulted in inaccurate records. It has also meant that Ottawa Public Health was not complying with provincial health standards aimed at ensuring high coverage rates across the province, something of growing concern at a time when measles has resurfaced across North America.
Last week the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care asked every health unit in the province to report back on whether it was complying with provincial standards for vaccine preventable diseases and, if not, how it planned to do so. Ottawa Public Health, in its report to the province, acknowledged it isn’t fully compliant and said the province’s new immunization record-keeping system — Panorama — should help make easier to do so, once student records are up to date.
That will involve what Sherry Nigro, manager of health promotion and disease prevention, termed a blitz to update immunization records for all 150,000 schoolchildren in the city. Public health officials will also update immunization records at all 260 licensed daycares. Once done, Ottawa Public Health will continue to update every child, every year, something that has not been done in the recent past.
Until it suspended surveillance, Ottawa Public Health would look at immunization records of one group of Ottawa students. In 2012, it monitored the records of 52,585 high school students, resulting in the suspension for 20 days of 2,471 students whose immunization records were not up to date.
Beginning in the fall, OPH says, it will make sure every student record is up to date, potentially resulting in hundreds or thousands of student suspensions. Suspensions are a last resort and are carried out only after several letters go unanswered.
Last fall Diane Holmes, then chair of the Ottawa Board of Health, wrote to Health Minister Eric Hoskins, noting that Ottawa receives the third-lowest per-capita funding of any health unit in the province and asking for information about the funding formula. The minister replied last month, saying the province has “made every effort to ensure appropriate funding for Ontario’s public health system” and noting that provincial funding to OPH increased by more than $21 million between 2003 and 2014. OPH, which has cut and reduced some programs in recent years, has tabled a 2015 draft budget of $56.4 million, which has yet to be approved by city council.
Dr. Isra Levy, chief medical officer of health, will recommend immunization become a “strategic priority” of the board of health during the current municipal term.