New ways of delivering Aberdeen’s immunisation programme have been supported by the
Integration Joint Board.
Aberdeen City Health & Social Care Partnership is aiming to increase immunisation uptake
via the newly redesigned service.
Other key drivers include ensuring:
- the transformation in delivery is achieved without any adverse impact on safety or
sustainability of current or existing vaccination programmes - the necessary systems are in place to support new models of delivery
- the new set-up is sufficiently resourced and sustainable
The Partnership’s Transformation Lead, Gail Woodcock, said in a report to the IJB: “The
redesign of the immunisation service will see a change from several disparate teams to a
single team working across the three HSCP locality areas.
“The core team will administer pre-school, school and adult immunisations throughout the
year, and this will be supplemented by wider nursing workforce during peak immunisation
delivery periods.
“The development of an immunisation team allows increased consistency in programme
delivery enabling the implementation of city-wide protocols covering discussion, recording
and follow-up with patients and parents on immunisation.
“The proposed structure seeks to maximise the time that nursing staff can spend delivering
immunisations, with support being put in place from business support and public health
teams to coordinate delivery and provide health promotion support.”
Routine immunisations for adults and secondary age children will be delivered from several
community hubs rather than at doctors’ surgeries.
Aberdeen City Council’s education department has agreed that school-age immunisations
can be delivered in primary schools.
Mass immunisations such as flu jabs and a Covid-19 vaccine, if it becomes available, will be
delivered in a range of community spaces, such as sports halls, churches and other large
venues that can accommodate social distancing.
The report also outlined changes this year to flu vaccinations due to Covid-19.
NHS Scotland last month announced that the offer of immunisations would be increased this
year to include everyone over 55 – which may increase to include the over-50s, depending
on availability – and all those identified as shielding or living in a household with someone
shielding.
This will mean the number of flu vaccinations is expected to grow by around 35%.
Total costs expected for the 2020/21 redesigned programme are expected to be £1,245,385.
