Immunisation is one of the best ways to protect our pēpi, and Mahitahi Hauora has launched new initiatives to encourage whānau to immunise.

Pre-calling whānau to immunise on time

The Mahitahi Hauora Clinical Hub team is directly contacting whānau to encourage them to immunise tamariki on time.

Clinical Hub Lead Nurse Gaelyn Sinclair pre-calls Māori whānau whose infants are due for scheduled immunisations. The Hub team have used Te Whatu Ora’s Childhood Immunisation Prioritisation Matrix to plan the work, starting with pepi coming up to 6 weeks old, followed by those due the 12-month MMR immunisation. As the initiative rolls out, the Hub team will add other immunisation milestones to the workflow.

“The Hub team have worked closely with the Outreach Immunisation Service in designing this initiative, aiming to understand what is already provided and endeavouring to fill gaps rather than duplicate existing activity,” said Dr Prenton.

The calls started on 27 March, and since then 51 Māori children have been successfully immunised.

Whānau whose tamariki are immunised on time receive a $50 Prezzy card as a ‘thank you’ for protecting the next generation of children growing up in Tai Tokerau.

Immunisation outreach bus tours Mid and Far North

Mahitahi Hauora, Te Whatu Ora and participating general practices are working together to provide a mobile bus to focus on childhood immunisation. The bus is visiting sites in the Mid and Far North between 15 and 26 May.

Staffed by two vaccinators and a kaiawhina, the bus offers all scheduled immunisations, including flu. It is free for the whole whānau and no appointment is needed.

The Mahitahi Hauora Clinical Hub team is contacting whānau with tamariki up to the age of 6 who have any immunisations due who live in the area via phone calls and text messaging to invite them to attend the van as a drop-in immunisation clinic. Te Whatu Ora is contacting Outreach immunisation clients with overdue immunisations and inviting them to attend.

The work is being ably supported by the Mahitahi Hauora Digital & Data team, which brought data together from the National Immunisation Register and the PMS of participating practices to compile lists of unvaccinated tamariki, which informed where the bus should go and the whānau who should be contacted.

Whānau who have not been specifically contacted are also welcome to attend, and the mobile bus schedule is being promoted on radio and social media.

The bus also offers flu immunisations to eligible whānau/tamariki and Covid boosters, however the focus is on childhood immunisations.