The Queensland LNP government’s removal of funding for influenza vaccination of healthcare workers has been denounced as ridiculous and foolish by immunisation experts.
Professor Robert Booy of the National Centre for Immunisation Research at Westmead Hospital in Sydney has strongly condemned the decision to dismantle the state’s program of free influenza vaccination for health workers.
Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young announced that "regrettably" the program had to cease under the LNP’s policy of devolution policy that will require the 17 hospital local boards to pay for the program instead of it being centrally funded.
Professor Booy described the cuts as "penny-wise and pound-foolish".
"If you save a few pennies now, it might cost you a lot of money in terms of healthcare workers not getting vaccinated, getting sick themselves or causing outbreaks in hospitals of influenza," Professor Booy told the Courier Mail.
The statewide immunisation program had operated since 2008 and helped boost vaccination rates for Queensland Health's 80,000 staff from 26 per cent to 60 per cent.
The cuts come after a 38-year old woman and two other otherwise healthy adults died of influenza complications in the last month in Queensland.
The Queensland LNP government’s removal of funding for influenza vaccination of healthcare workers has been denounced as ridiculous and foolish by immunisation experts.
Professor Robert Booy of the National Centre for Immunisation Research at Westmead Hospital in Sydney has strongly condemned the decision to dismantle the state’s program of free influenza vaccination for health workers.
Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young announced that "regrettably" the program had to cease under the LNP’s policy of devolution policy that will require the 17 hospital local boards to pay for the program instead of it being centrally funded.
Professor Booy described the cuts as "penny-wise and pound-foolish".
"If you save a few pennies now, it might cost you...
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