Unmet Needs
North Tyneside are meeting the 95% coverage target for most immunisations however there is practice level variation and therefore suggests there is unmet need within the borough. However, the unmet need is generally only for small numbers of children. For example, within North Tyneside, to achieve 100% coverage in children having both MMR vaccines by the time they are five years old currently there are only 32 children that require vaccination. The risk however is if these numbers continue to increase, if each quarter 32 children are outstanding vaccination the longer term result will be larger numbers of children and adults unimmunised. A further risk is that if the children and adults who are not immunised socialise together the chance of outbreaks increases.
Targeted public health messaging should take causes of inequalities in vaccine uptake into account; for example, ethnicity, deprivation, geography and religious belief . For example, a practice in the third most deprived area of the borough achieved 73.9% coverage for their preschool booster where a practice in the least deprived area achieved 100%. Additionally, there are other groups including unregistered children, younger children from large families, children with learning difficulties, looked after children and those from non-English speaking families that are more likely to not be fully immunised . Additional work would be required to assess these needs fully.
Parental confidence in the national immunisation programme is at an all-time high and national work showed that parents trusted the information they got on vaccination from their healthcare professionals over and above any other channel. Some major reasons for the decline in coverage were thought to therefore be related to how people can best access and use local services10 .
In 2018, a report by the Royal Society of Public Health undertook a survey to identify barriers to vaccination across the life course . The report stated that accessibility and convenience of vaccination services can be important determinants of vaccine uptake, and this may be particularly true for parents who are not explicitly anti-vaccination, but perhaps are more questioning, as reassurance from a healthcare professional (usually a nurse) is the most effective way of encouraging them to vaccinate.
Based on that survey, the most common barriers to getting vaccinated were:
- timing of appointments (49%)
- availability of appointments (46%)
- childcare duties (29%)