The Panel with Deborah Hart and Anton Mathews Part 2
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RNZ News
3 hours ago
- RNZ News
Vaccine hesitancy growing in at-risk communities, providers blame social media misinformation
Janice Kuka, left, and Jackie Davis of Ngā Mataapuna Oranga PHO, which has managed to boost immunisation rates in the face of soical media minisformation Photo: Supplied / Janice Kuka A growing number of families living in communities most vulnerable to infectious disease outbreaks are refusing to have their children vaccinated . Immunisation experts fear this worrying trend will make it impossible to reach the government's target of 95 percent coverage by 2030. At Ngā Mataapuna Oranga primary health organisation in Western Bay of Plenty, health workers are not passively waiting for whānau to bring their babies in for vaccination. A manager and kaiwhakahaere, Jackie Davis, said it had managed to boost immunisation rates by 10 percent in the last year through the heroic efforts of nurses, community workers and GPs. "[We've even had] community teams lurking in bushes, waiting to ambush mums coming home from shopping," she said wryly. In a league table of primary health organisations (PHOs) published by Health NZ, Ngā Mataapuna Oranga has the highest decline rate, with 25 percent of families refusing immunisation. As a small PHO, with just four general practices, it only took a handful of families to decline immunisation to drop its rates below target, Davis pointed out. However, she admitted it was up against persistent anti-vaccination propaganda, which spreaded like contagion via social media . "I guess their promotion is just as good as our promotions are, so they counter a lot of the work we do." Nationally, 79.3 percent of two-year-olds were fully vaccinated in the first three months of the year - marginally better than at the same time last year. In some regions however, rates were much lower: Northland had just 66.4 percent coverage, while in Tairāwhiti and Bay of Plenty, it was around 68 percent . Davis said the Covid pandemic damaged trust in the health system and it was taking time to rebuild those relationships. "I think too that we have to balance our attempts at immunisation in relation to our relationships with our families. "To put it bluntly, sometimes we're going two or three times to the same families. And at the end of the day, from their perspective, they're over us." Infectious disease expert professor Peter McIntyre. Photo: University of Otago Infectious disease expert professor Peter McIntyre, from Otago University, said before Covid, decline rates for childhood immunisation were around 5 percent. However, for about one in three PHOs in those Health NZ figures, the decline rate was now more than 10 percent. "This substantial increase in the proportion of families declining, effectively makes that impossible." Unfortunately, vaccine distrust had got a stronger hold among Māori and Pacific communities , which already had more "delayed" immunisations, he said. "What the decline figures are telling is that these are people who are indicating they just don't intend to get their child immunised full stop, which is a development that's really worrying, because decline is a whole lot worse than delay." Full coverage remained a worthy goal, he said. "But if we really have to choose - which maybe at this stage we do - we want to focus on: How good is our protection against measles ? What's that looking like? What do we have to do about it? And maybe whooping cough as well. And meningococcal B." Ngāti Porou Oranga in Tairāwhiti recorded the lowest coverage with just 38.5 percent of two-year-olds fully vaccinated in the first three months of the year. No-one from the PHO was available to comment. Eastern Bay Primary Health Alliance in Bay of Plenty said its figures had improved: 58.4 percent of enrolled tamariki were fully immunised as of 1 July, up from 52.5 percent in the previous quarter. Chief executive Katarina Gordon said however it was also seeing a growing number of whānau "expressing hesitancy or choosing to decline immunisation". "We're seeing a steady increase in vaccine hesitancy particularly among younger parents and caregivers. "Some are actively declining, but many are simply unsure or misinformed. Social media misinformation, past experiences of the health system, and general mistrust all contribute to this hesitancy." Many whānau were living in rural or remote areas, with limited access to transport, housing instability and economic hardship, which meant day-to-day needs often took priority over preventive healthcare like immunisations, she said. Health providers were struggling themselves with limited clinic availability, workforce shortages (especially nurses and outreach staff) and high demand, which meant some whānau faced long wait times or limited options for appointments. "Mobile outreach services help, but capacity is stretched, and funding is not always available and or sustainable." Despite these challenges, Eastern Bay Primary Health Alliance continued to work with its practice network, outreach teams, Hauora Māori partners the National Public Health Service and Te Whatu Ora Health NZ to boost immunisation rates. "We remain committed to ensuring all interactions with whānau are timely, respectful, and culturally safe." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
3 hours ago
- RNZ News
Auckland's public hospitals at the 'upper limit' of capacity
Te Whatu Ora Northern acting deputy chief executive Vanessa Thornton. Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook Auckland's public hospitals are at the "upper limit" of their capacity as winter illnesses hit hard. Ambulances were delayed off-loading patients at Auckland City and Middlemore hospitals on Monday, and all four of the city's public hospitals were under pressure The acting deputy chief executive of Te Whatu Ora Northern, Vanessa Thornton, said hospitals are very full and many people are turning up to emergency departments with respiratory illnesses. "Coughs, colds, pnemonias, flu - influenza A and B, these are the things that are ... increasing the number of presentations at this time of year," she said. Monday was very busy - Mondays often are - but not the busiest this winter, she said. Even though ambulance patients were delayed at Middlemore and Auckland, the hospitals did not need to escalate to emergency reponse mode where ambulances might take patients to other hospitals to reduce the load, she said. That had happened at times in the past few weeks, Thornton said. When wards were very full with sick people, the pressure mounted on emergency departments because it was harder to move people out and admit them to a hospital bed. "At this time of the year we are always generally full at the acute services - medicine, surgery, orthopaedics, they're all very full," she said. "Our capacity is at its upper limit but we have got some escalation capacity which some of the hospitals have needed to employ to ensure flow." Hato Hone St John Ambulance Auckland operations manager Andy Everiss said the service worked with the hospitals to manage demand yesterday, including taking patients to non-hospital clinics where appropriate. It was working to ensure those who needed time-critical care got it without delay, he said. Thornton, who is an ED doctor herself, said patients should not hesitate to come to hospital if they needed emergency care at any time of the day or night. Those who needed urgent care would be seen urgently, she said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
15 hours ago
- RNZ News
The Panel with Deborah Hart and Anton Mathews Part 2
This half hour the panel speaks to Otago University Public Health professor Nick Wilson about a study showing that many former leaders of the world's nuclear-armed nations were impaired by health conditions while in office. After that, they head to Oamaru, the Victorian capital of New Zealand, where a passionate group of volunteers run a clothing hire service.
