Agenda item

The aim of this report is to provide the Committee with an update on the NHS England Commissioned Childhood Immunisation Programme in Medway.

Discussion:

The Director of Public Health and the Kent and Medway Screening and Immunisation Lead from NHS England introduced the report which provided an update on the NHS England Commissioned Childhood Immunisation Programme in Medway.  Officers updated the Committee on more recent statistics to the annual figures provided within the report.  They explained that for Quarter 2 of 2018/19, there were 13 measures relating to immunisations for children aged 1, 2 and 5 years old and all had improved from the Quarter 1 figures. This further improvement was very much welcomed but the Committee were reassured that officers were not complacent and that work to continue the improving performance was very much continuing.

The Kent and Medway Screening and Immunisation Lead also explained that targeted work and support with GP practices to improve data management had also contributed to the improvements, as had increased resourcing of the Kent and Medway Child Record Department and the procurement of the Community Immunisation Service, which was providing a ‘catch-up’ service.

Members then raised a number of questions and comments, which included:

·           Immunisation data for older children and young people – in response to a question about immunisation data of children and young people of age groups beyond the age of 5, officers undertook to provide a briefing note on this information.

·           Information sharing between systems – in response to a question about the issues of information sharing, officers explained that GPs are asked to transmit their immunisation recorded data but that this was not automatically transferred.  Equally it was explained that the coding used to record data was incredibly complex and therefore errors sometimes occurred.  This was not a problem unique to Medway and the possibility of commissioning a third party with experience in resolving this issue was being considered.

·           Social economic impact on immunisation uptake – A Member asked if there was a link between families living in more deprived areas and a reduced uptake in immunisation.  Officers confirmed that there was no ability to measure whether or not there was a link but that there was anecdotal evidence to suggest this could be the case. 

·           Impact of the changes to children’s centres – A member raised concern that the change in Children Centre provision may have impacted on the ability for services to reach families for immunisation purposes.  Officers explained that regardless of the infrastructure of the service, the performance in relation to immunisation rates had improved.  It was added that there was awareness around inequalities issues and that GP practices and Health Visitors helped to promote immunisation information and target families.

·           Risks of outbreaks of disease – in response to a question about the risks in Medway of disease outbreak, given that the target of 95% of the cohort being immunised had not been reached for almost all categories and year groups.  Officers confirmed that no major outbreaks had occurred which suggested there were sufficient numbers being immunised to prevent the spread of disease outbreaks.

Decision:

The Committee noted the report.