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An investigation into how Aboriginal Medical Services contribute to childhood immunisation

Abstract

While there are diverse immunisation service providers, according to the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register (ACIR), less than 1% of all childhood vaccinations (equating to less than 10% of all Aboriginal children) are recorded as being delivered by an Aboriginal Medical Service (AMS). This is likely to be an under-estimate of the care provided. This study sought to determine to what extent AMS’s contribute to the immunisation of Aboriginal children in their local areas. Results The findings revealed that AMS’s in NSW are taking active steps to achieve an improvement in coverage and timeliness of immunisations that occur under NCIP for Aboriginal Children. In addition, the observations revealed various systematic processes in some AMS’s that directly contributed to up to 96% coverage of NCIP vaccines for regular clients. It also highlighted specific program implementation and community events that compliment immunisation through health promotion, reminders and follow up at different AMS’s. Conclusion This study showed that the ‘personality’ and commitment of individual AMS’s contributed significantly to the coverage rates of the children less than 5 years of age in the local areas of the AMS’s that participated in this study. Further investigation is needed to assess data collection at ACIR

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