Immunisation database hit by delay

Funding shortfall: A national immunisation database with a record of vaccinations received by all patients has been delayed because the HSE has not sanctioned the €19 million required for the project.

A source close to the project said while the HSE supported the plan, funding for all new IT programmes had been stalled after problems with the controversial PPARS computerised payroll and human resources system emerged. Work on PPARS has been suspended pending a review.

Delays facing the national immunisation database is one of the issues to be discussed by health professionals at an immunisation conference in Cork tomorrow.

Public health doctors want the single searchable national immunisation database to replace the 50 separate electronic and paper-based databases currently in place.

This multitude of filing systems means many patients have incomplete or duplicate vaccination records, doctors claim.

It also creates difficulties for agencies such as the National Disease Surveillance Centre when trying to make accurate estimates of uptake rates.

A mid-term review of the Hib booster campaign, to be given to delegates tomorrow, highlights one such flaw with multiple databases.

Following an examination of vaccine records from family doctors working on the campaign, Dr Jolita Mereckiene, from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), found a discrepancy between the uptake rate reported by GPs and that reported to the HSE.

While GPs reported 62 per cent Hib vaccine uptake, the HSE's estimate was 50 per cent. Dr Mereckiene said this discrepancy could be because of delays in GP notifications.

Dr Mereckiene said there was also concern at the low level of Hib booster uptake. She said this appeared to be linked to parents' lack of awareness of the campaign. The Hib booster is being offered to children in the one to four age group after a number of children contracted Hib despite being vaccinated against it. One two-year-old boy in Co Louth died from a Hib infection.

Delegates will discuss whether a similar catch-up campaign for MMR is required. One in five children during 2004 was not given the MMR vaccine, far below the recommended vaccination rate of 95 per cent.

Research falsely linking the MMR vaccine to higher rates of autism saw MMR vaccine rates plummet. A catch-up campaign would include all children in the four to 17 years of age cohort.

In a bid to prevent similarly flawed research causing public concern, health professionals at the HSE's third National Immunisation Conference will be shown methods to critically assess new medical reports.

Dr Suzanne Cotter, a public health doctor with the HPSC, said despite difficulties reaching the recommended 95 per cent immunisation rate, there were no plans to make vaccination mandatory.

Dr Brenda Corcoran, public health medicine specialist at the HSE National Immunisation Office, said a new vaccine delivery system had been successfully introduced across the State.

Under this scheme vaccines are delivered directly from the manufacturer to the GP. More than 1.7 million vaccines were delivered this way last year.