VACCINATION rates for health staff in Jersey remain “worryingly low” and are well short of the target figures, it has emerged.
The latest figures – prepared for the Health Advisory Board’s December meeting – showed that 31% of Health Department employees had received a flu jab, with 25% being given the autumn booster for Covid – far below the stated aim of 75% coverage.
Attendees at the meeting at St Paul’s Centre also heard there had been a “fabulous” take-up of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) jab among young Islanders, 98% of whom have been vaccinated.
Chief nurse Jessie Marshall said the that the most recent data covered vaccinations administered up to 16 November, with 986 staff having a flu jab and 815 the Covid booster. The window in which vaccinations should be given had been extended to the middle of January, she added.
Guidance for health staff in both Jersey and the UK is that vaccination should be offered by employers as part of a policy to prevent the transmission of flu to help protect staff, their families and those that they care for.
Board chair Professor Hugo Mascie-Taylor said the figures for staff in Jersey were “worryingly low” and asked if there were ways the take-up could be increased.
Former chief executive for Health Julie Garbutt, who quit her role in 2018 and has recently been appointed as a non-executive director of the board, said the offer of a free coffee or tea for those who came forward to be vaccinated was seemingly not enough.
“Gift vouchers that were available in the past were quite popular – they were not expensive, but seemed to act as an incentive,” she said.
Another non-exec, Dame Clare Gerada, who is chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said she wished to congratulate GPs in Jersey for achieving the 98% MMR vaccination coverage.
The MMR jab has recently been in the news, as UK media have reported that a drop in vaccination rates to a ten-year low had coincided with a surge in cases of measles.
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said there were 149 laboratory-confirmed measles cases in England between 1 January and 30 September this year, compared with 54 in the whole of 2022.
Only 84.5% of eligible children in the UK had received the recommended two MMR doses, below the target figure of 95%.
Dr Gerada said: “A borough where I work in London has a rate of 60%, and there’s lots of measles.
“The work being done by GPs in Jersey is fabulous, and you aren’t going to get measles.”
