Mobile clinics go into action
The days of high demand at Covid testing and vaccination sites are at an end, so Waikato District Health Board is changing tack.
It is phasing out testing and vaccination stations in rural communities and townships such as those in the Matamata-Piako district and instead has pivoted to mobile clinics. There are hopes that these clinics will be more effective for connecting with harder to reach communities.
Dr Rawiri McKree Jansen, from the National Māori Pandemic Group and senior general practice doctor at Te Whare Hauora o Raungaiti health clinic near Waharoa, said the transition to mobile clinics was a good step.
Their Māori health clinic had been working throughout the pandemic to support whānau both in their community and beyond when it came to vaccinations, rapid tests and PCR testing, alongside care packages for those infected. He said wrap-around services were the way to go and mobile clinics were a part of that.
‘‘Fixed sites will serve dense population areas but mobile clinics will be more practical for reaching further into rural communities,’’ Jansen said.
‘‘I think Matamata, Waharoa and Raungaiti will be well served by the approach that keeps services going, and I think it will be more efficient in the medium term to be mobile and flexible.’’
The change to mobile clinics came as rapid tests continued to carry the load of testing, the DHB said. But there was also a growing need for a more targeted approach to immunisations given the winter flu season was approaching and New Zealand’s border was reopening, increasing the chance of infections.
The new strategy would be part of a wider mobile vaccination service, Waikato DHB’s Covid-19 directorate executive lead, Maree Munro, said.
‘‘We set up those community sites in the middle of last year when we were really picking up the Covid vaccination programme, that was really to enable us to do mass vaccinations ... where we were last year doing 200-300 vaccinations a day, it has really come down now quite considerably,’’ Munro said.
‘‘We are also moving from just that focus on Covid-19 to the broader immunisations that we need to get out into the community. First and foremost we need to get influenza out there, that is very important at the moment with the border open.
‘‘At the same time we have a large cohort of people, rangatahi who haven’t had their MMR vaccinations and then of course we have got a lot of tamariki that are not up to date with their childhood immunisations, so we are looking to see how we can offer a broader range of vaccinations but in a much more targeted response.’’
Waikato DHB would gather staff from the old sites and redeploy them as mobile teams across town halls, sports clubs and other sites to offer flu and MMR (mumps, measles and rubella) vaccinations as well as Covid-19 vaccinations.
The DHB was confident that, given mobile clinics had been used before during the vaccine roll-out, it was expected they would be the best way to improve access for many rural Waikato communities.
Jansen was looking forward to seeing the best services offered to whānau in rural communities and the wider Waikato area.
‘‘The DHB services are adding that capacity in by doing those flu vaccinations, it is really important,’’ Jansen said.
‘‘I am keen to see that we wrap that up and offer even more, making sure that we can deliver to whānau who might be eligible for an MMR catch-up or the HPV vaccination and their childhood immunisations. ‘‘We have got to do everything we can to offer vaccination services to whānau, so we can get a good result.’’
New mobile vaccination sites in Waipā and Matamata-Piako will be published on the Waikato DHB Facebook page and on its website.
‘‘Fixed sites will serve dense population areas but mobile clinics will be more practical for reaching further into rural communities.’’
Dr Rawiri McKree Jansen National Māori Pandemic Group