The Department of Health has announced that changes to the Childhood Immunisation Programme will be implemented fro 4th September 2006. A letter from the Chief Medical, Nursing and Pharmaceutical Officers provides a background to the changes, the new immunisation programme schedule and details of a catch up campaign.
In summary, the new programme introduces pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) into the schedule and modifies the schedule of the Meningococcal C (MenC) and haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccinations. The letter also details the new immunisation schedule in Annex 1, recommendations on how to proceed with vaccinations in children who are part way through the existing programme and detailed information of the target population for the catch up campaign.
The NHS Immunisation website containing information for parents and health professionals will be updated with the new programme details and an advertising campaign will be used to raise awareness of the new programme.
Action: Clinicians involved in delivery of the Childhood Immunisation Programme should familiarise themselves with the changes to the schedule in preparation for the implementation date.