The following vaccines are currently available:
Influenza
We are vaccinating people who are eligible for free flu vaccines. Influenza is a nasty illness which we love preventing. To start with we will be targeting those most at risk.
NZ specific Influenza vaccines are still available. This important seasonal vaccine is free to Eligible patients who are more at risk of serious, sometimes life-threatening complications of influenza, including:
- those aged over 65,
- pregnant women
- people with current or previous cancers
- asthma requiring daily treatment and other respiratory conditions such as Chronic Obstructive airways disease
- Heart conditions such as angina or previous vascular events such as heart attack or stroke
- Renal conditions
- ongoing conditions including treatment with immune suppressing medications,
- children under 4 who have had admissions for respiratory illnesses
If you are not sure – and would like to discuss this vaccine – consider asking your clinician or even booking a telephone consultation with the nurse. She will be happy to advise you.
If you are not eligible for a free vaccine, we are still happy to vaccinate you – with the cost in 2020 being $35.00. Staying well and influenza free keeps you, your family, and your community protected.
New Patients
If you are not known to the practice or enrolled with us, we will need some more information:
If you have access to email please send as an email. Put FLU VACCINATION REQUESTED in the title. We will also need your name, address, date of birth, usual GP (name and practice if possible please).
If you are aged 65 already that’s all we need to know – otherwise we need to know what your eligibility is for a free flu vaccine. If you know that – you could tell us in the email.
Check eligibility at : https://www.influenza.org.nz/e...
If you don't have access to email please call and ask the receptionist to book you a telephone appointment on 03 689 8016. A clinician will call you back to discuss how we can assist you.
Measles is a severe viral illness that can have serious consequences. With an effective vaccination programme in NZ, we only see sporadic cases but with outbreaks recently in Christchurch, and Dunedin, people have been contacting us to check what they need to do.
Measles vaccination is highly effective. A (second) booster dose is designed to ensure vaccine effectiveness. The booster dose gives additional guarantee of effectiveness but is much less urgent, as the first dose is likely to be around 95% effective.
We love preventing illness, and vaccination is an extremely simple, effective way to do this. If you have previously decided to not vaccinate yourself or your children but are reconsidering this, we would love to hear from you.
In recent weeks we have had many enquiries regarding measles vaccination. Requests for vaccination boosters is placing some pressure on vaccine supplies.
Our priority is to vaccinate unvaccinated patients ahead of people looking for boosters:
Standard childhood/ Scheduled Vaccination: 2 doses: at 15 months old and 4 years old.
Unvaccinated children, adolescents and adults (born after 1969) can be booked for “catch up” vaccination with an initial dose, followed by a second dose 4 weeks (or more) later. If you don’t know whether you have been vaccinated it is safe to receive a vaccination anyway.
Born after January 1969 and vaccinated but unsure whether this was one or 2 doses? Consider booking for a booster dose.
Adults born before January 1969 should have “native immunity” (meaning you probably had measles as a child ) You do not require vaccination as you are immune.
Health care workers and those working in places of institutional care (rest homes, schools, child care etc) may need booster vaccinations if unsure of their vaccination status (and are born after 1969).
As we have limited supplies of vaccine, priority is being given to unvaccinated patients until we have sufficient vaccine to offer boosters to lower risk (previously immunised) people.
We also are very keen to prevent influenza. We generally start vaccinating against this very common, severe viral illness soon. We will be delaying that programme by a few weeks while we are dealing with measles catch up vaccinations
The HPV vaccine is now available free to boys and young men, as well as girls and young women, aged 9 - 26. We recommend you protect yourself from this virus which can lead to genital and other cancers.
We will be contacting eligible people to offer appointments in coming weeks.
For further information on the vaccine and HPV virus please see list of relevant websites here.
Almost everyone is at risk of shingles because they are likely to have been exposed to chickenpox, even if they have no history of clinical chickenpox or chickenpox vaccination. Following chickenpox infection, the virus lies dormant in the nerves near the spine and may re-emerge many years later as shingles. Shingles most commonly affects older adults or people of any age with a weakened immune system.
Zostavax® is indicated for the prevention of shingles. It can be given to patients who have previously had shingles.
