Topic: Immunisation

It’s important your patients prepare before travelling overseas to avoid diseases and other health issues.

Providing a travel consultation with your patients minimises the risks which may occur during travel. 

The travel consultation aims to:  

• assess the traveller’s trip plans and determine potential health hazards 
• educate the traveller about anticipated risks and methods for prevention 
• prescribe travel vaccinations for preventable diseases and medications for prophylaxis, or self-treatment

If you are not confident providing advice to travellers, particularly about vaccinations, please consider referral to a dedicated travel clinic.

Your patients can visit the NSW Health website for steps to staying healthy when travelling or Health Resource Directory to find more travel health advice resources. 

From 1 March 2024, changes to legislation will require all vaccination providers to report to the AIR:

• the route of administration for Japanese Encephalitis Virus (JEV) vaccines
• information about the vaccine type for all vaccines prescribed by the Australian Immunisation Register Rule 2015 (this includes COVID-19, influenza, National Immunisation Program and JEV vaccines)

Under the ‘vaccine type’ field, vaccination providers can choose one of the following options:

• antenatal
• NIP/Commonwealth
• private
• state program

The antenatal option should be selected when the person presenting is pregnant at the time the vaccine is administered, regardless of whether the vaccine is funded privately, under the NIP or by a state or territory program.

Find out more

The Department of Health and Aged Care has provided 2024 influenza season advice including:

• Statement from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) on the administration of seasonal influenza vaccines in 2024
• 2024 NIP influenza vaccination program advice for health professionals
• 2024 NIP influenza vaccination consumer factsheet
• Influenza vaccination- resource collection
• National Immunisation Program Schedule
• SKAI communication package: Conversations with parents and pregnant women around influenza vaccination

Further advice and resources will become available in advance of the program rollout in April.

Vaccination providers and health professionals can also get the latest National Immunisation Program updates by subscribing to the Department of Health and Aged Care email list.

Additional vaccine advice:

COVID-19 advice

• National COVID-19 Vaccine Program for 2024

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)

• Clinical use of Arexvy (RSV PRE-F3) for RSV– currently available on the private market.

Benchmarque Group is hosting two new virtual workshops focusing on catch up immunisations.

Basic Catchups for Immunisation – find out more.

This workshop will be held on Saturday, 2 March and Saturday, 11 May, from 8.30am to 11.30am.

Complex Catchups for Immunisation – find out more.

This workshop will be held on Saturday, 13 April and Saturday, 8 June, from 8.30am to 11.30am.

These workshops are open to all individuals, regardless of whether they have completed immunisation education with the Benchmarque Group. The workshops cost $95.

The end of the year is fast approaching, which means a lot of people are travelling overseas.

While we have high levels of vaccination coverage, we can still get exposed to serious diseases while visiting other countries.

Before heading overseas these holidays, people are encouraged to add vaccinations to their travel checklist.

This means:

• checking their vaccination status online through MyGov or the Express Plus Medicare mobile app
• checking Smartraveller if they need any vaccines for their destination, and
• booking a vaccination appointment before they leave

By vaccinating we can protect ourselves, children and the community from serious diseases which are not common in Australia.

The National Immunisation Program also provides free vaccinations for children from birth to four years old.

Making sure our children are up-to-date and getting vaccinated according to the schedule means they are protected from viruses and diseases which are present in other countries.

As health professionals, you can encourage your patients ahead of travelling to get vaccinated and recommend vaccines for their overseas destinations.

You can use the Smartraveller.gov.au website to guide your advice and help your patients stay safe this holiday period.

Find out more

A downloadable, Routine Childhood Immunisation health professionals’ kit, is available on the Department of Health and Aged Care website.

This toolkit is designed to support you in conversations with parents and carers about childhood immunisation.

The kit contains:  

• answers to common questions from parents and carers
• immunisation clinical support
• links to support tools to use when discussing vaccination with parents, whether the parents are ready to vaccinate their children, have questions, or intend to decline vaccination
• printable materials you can display or hand out at your clinic
• social media and newsletter suggestions
• specific materials for First Nations and multicultural audiences

There are also a range of simple animations covering why timing is important, how vaccines work, and the safety of vaccines.

All vaccinating general practices in NSW must adhere to mandatory vaccine storage and cold chain management requirements to ensure vaccines are stored in accordance with best practice guidelines.

The Public Health Unit (PHU) is conducting random audits in South Western Sydney to ensure practices are adhering to cold chain management guidelines, in response to the growing number of breaches related to COVID-19 vaccines.

It is important for practices to ensure all staff have completed the NSW Health Vaccine Storage and Cold Chain Management online learning module, and the COVID-19 Vaccination Training Program, to prevent cold chain incidents.

Relevant training:

Vaccine Storage and Chain Management Module

COVID-19 Vaccination Training Program

Additional information:

Vaccine storage and cold chain management

If you have a clinical question, please contact SWSPHN’s Clinical Support team via email at clinicalsupport@swsphn.com.au

Information about free walk-in flu vaccination clinics in South Western Sydney is available in five languages.

Download these flyers:

English/Assyrian

English/Simplified Chinese

English/Vietnamese

English/Arabic

English/Traditional Chinese