Jimboomba doctors support vaccination push

State Health Minister Cameron Dick today announced the government would phone the parents of all children under five who were not up to date with their immunisation schedule.

Mr Dick said the aim was to see 95 per cent of Queensland children fully vaccinated by January next year.

“Up to 35,000 children under five in Queensland are either not vaccinated or behind schedule,” Mr Dick said.

“Our focus is making sure those kids who’ve missed out on the health benefits of vaccination get a chance to catch up.”

Jimboomba GP Dr Boban Ramesan said the initiative was a great support to local doctors.

“In my experience the uptake of vaccination (locally) is pretty good, I have had one or two opt out for their own reasons,” he said.

“We have been trying to get the message across and we are seeing them back for further discussions but if the government has got a push like that it will be very helpful for GPs.

“I think there’s a lot of parent education involved in (vaccination), which I think is the key to successful vaccination programs.”

He said having 35,000 children behind schedule in Queensland was a concern.

“It’s an alarming proportion,” he said.

“I think community vaccination is extremely important to keeping (the spread of disease) under control.”

Mundoolun mother Jessica Panther fully supports the government in its drive to encourage more families to vaccinate.

She said with a three-week-old son at home and a two-year-old daughter in childcare, it was important that not only her children but others around them were immunised.

“I think it’s a great idea,” she said.

“The childcare centre’s policy is that children are to up to date (with their vaccinations). It was a factor in us choosing them.”

The state government will contact parents through 13 HEALTH, before connecting them with a local GP or vaccination clinic.

The government will spend $1.5 million on the initiative to contact families and set up additional vaccination clinics.