Written by Mark Manokaran – Nabenet Health Manager
The provision of influenza vaccination programs to all staff in residential aged care homes will be compulsory from May, 2018. The moves comes amid the staggering results of a national survey conducted across residential care homes which showed a significant link between increased staff immunisation and lower aged care flu outbreaks. The Hon Ken Wyatt, Minister for Aged Care recently advised that aged care homes with only a quarter of their staff vaccinated had a 25% higher rate of flu outbreaks than those with more than three quarters vaccinated.
The national survey also revealed that 43% of the 2609 residential aged care homes reported at least one influenza outbreak in 2017. Alarmingly, only 3.5% of facilities had the recommended staff coverage of over 95% or higher to gain herd immunity.
Those providing in-house staff vaccination programs had higher coverage than those who only encouraged staff to go to an external provider.
“Vaccination is imperative for staff and residents in aged care, where the flu can spread quickly and have devastating consequences,” said Minister Wyatt.
Nabenet Health provides onsite flu vaccination programs for facilities with no travel*, booking or administrative charges – contact us now on 9981 9888 or workhealth@nabenet.com.au to book in your flu vaccination program.
*metropolitan and wider Melbourne areas only. Regional areas may require additional travel fees
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