AN immunisation rate of more than 95 per cent for children by the age of five is a goal North West Hospital and Health Service chairman Paul Woodhouse intends to beat in the region.
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Queensland Health Minister Lawrence Springborg published immunisation rates for every heath board online this week and challenged them to have 95 per cent of all children in their region immunised by 2017.
Figures for the North West Health and Hospital Board show only 89.8 per cent of all one-year-old children in the North West were fully immunised as of March this year.
This rate is almost 3 per cent lower than the statewide immunisation rate for one-year-olds.
Immunisation rates among indigenous children were also lower than non-indigenous children at the ages of one, two and five.
Mr Woodhouse said the results were “disappointing” and aimed to beat the target set by the Health Minister.
“I like the idea of targets and for us I think the target should be higher because at the end of the day immunisation gives us a lot of peace of mind,” he said.
“100 per cent is the target for us.”
Mr Woodhouse said the NWHHS was using the Health Minister’s flagship Mums and Bubs program to educate new mothers about the benefits of immunisation.
“We’re finding health literacy is a really big issue as well and we’re picking that up as we go along and trying to explain health in new terms to take it away from that more complicated clinical language,” he said.
“Trying to make health simple and spreading the benefits of immunisation and preventative health in a broader sense is something we should all be involved in.”
Mr Woodhouse said supporting a culture of immunisation across the region could help stem future rises in diseases like hepatitis B and measles.
“We accept not everyone is in full agreement with immunisation but at the end of the day we’ll be guided by the science and the science overwhelmingly tells us it’s better to immunise than to not immunise.”
