By Emma Jolliff
The Ministry Of Health is under pressure tonight over claims its new policy on flu vaccinations is discriminatory.
Doctors and the medical association say thousands of children stand to miss out on free flu vaccines just because they're registered at the wrong medical centre.
Under changes to the health ministry's flu vaccination program, at-risk pre-schoolers will now be eligible for a free flu vaccination. But there's a catch.
“The ministry has decided to target those that will be eligible by way of which practice they attend rather than by individual need,” says NZMA chairman Peter Foley.
Only those vaccinations at practices which have more than half of their pre-schoolers identified as at-risk will be funded. Others will pay the full $26.
“If some of those children attend as we know they do practices where they don't fulfil the 50 percent criteria then it is a risk to the community,” says Foley.
‘At-risk’ pre-schoolers are described as being between six months and five years old who are Maori, Pacific Islanders or from a low socio-economic background.
“More at risk of developing the flu like illness or the complications that flu like illness will bring to them,” says Foley.
This year, for the first time, the seasonal flu vaccination will include a vaccine against the H1N1 virus, responsible for last year's swine flu pandemic.
The health ministry is coming under pressure from GPS and the Medical Association to change its policy. But wouldn't comment today.
Foley says he suspects the Ministry is realising the problem that's been created and is hopefully re-thinking the plan so that children in need won't miss out.
3 News