Mobile clinic making headway, reports senior health official

ver 300 residents have utilised the Ministry of Health and Wellness’ mobile clinic, a senior official who deemed the initiative a success has disclosed.

Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Health and Wellness Wayne Marshall said the programme which commenced in February saw a vehicle visiting communities providing healthcare services, including immunisation and health checks. The aim of the initiative, he said, is to ensure greater access to these services.

“So this intervention was very successful . . . and in March alone, there have been 14 outreach clinics [in] that mobile service and 383 Barbadians receiving these services.

“So, generally, I think that having started only in February and what we have recorded for March, this has been a phenomenal success – and I might add that it is nurse-driven. So I want to congratulate our nurses who have started this project,” Marshall told the congregation at Calvary Moravian Church, Roebuck Street, St Michae​​l on Sunday during a service to mark the launch of the 22nd Vaccination Week in the Americas.

The PS said polyclinics are also open on Saturdays — from February to May — to accommodate people who need to get their children immunised but “cannot afford to lose a day’s pay” to do so.

He said this was done as there has been an “alarming” decline in the immunisation rate in the country.

“Before COVID-19 of 2020, Barbados was one of the most outstanding among regional countries achieving and sustaining vaccination rates of more than 90 per cent on an annual basis. Subsequently, however, we have witnessed a measurable decline in our vaccination rates which are now estimated at only 85 per cent in 2023,” Marshall reported. “This decline is alarming because we recognise that vaccinations really extend lives and improve lives.”

Given that development, a study was conducted in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Task Force on Global Health to understand and identify reasons for the decline in immunisation rates, he explained.

The findings, Marshall said, revealed an estimated 10 per cent defaulting rate of vaccination among children under five years of age – children who received one of the first three vaccines but did not return for the first and second booster shots.

The health ministry official said among the reasons for this were that people forgot their appointments, some were unaware when the vaccines were due, others could not attend the clinic as they could not afford to lose a day’s work, and there were others who questioned vaccine safety.

“So these results propelled an all-out response and campaign by the Ministry of Health and Wellness to address the reasons and therefore reverse the decline being experienced, hence the initiatives,” Marshall said, though stressing that the ministry is not resting on its laurels.

“We want to continue and focus on capturing defaulters and reversing the downward trend in vaccination coverage by also implementing a number of other community outreach activities. We at the ministry take vaccination very seriously and the decline has been of great concern to us because we know that the future of our citizens and the prosperity of the nation hinges primarily on our ability to protect our people, and that is something that we take seriously, as I said, and that is something that we will continue to do in this regard.”

The theme for this year’s Vaccination Week in the Americans is Engage Now to Protect Your Future.

“Our ministry’s goal is to create awareness about vaccines to people of all ages and, in doing so, increase vaccine acceptance and uptake. Once vaccinated, lives continue without interruption of vaccine-preventive diseases, leading to healthy, longer and more productive lives,” said Marshall.

This year, he disclosed, there will be activities geared towards following goals, narrowing and eventually closing the existing immunisation gap, reaching and maintaining the targeted 95 per cent of vaccine coverage within the under-five population, maintaining vaccines and immunisations as priorities on the political agenda, and reassuring the population of the effectiveness, safety and benefits of vaccines and immunisations.