Letter from the Minister - Vaccination uptake in 2009-10

I have received a letter from the Health Minister Edwina Hart regarding vaccination uptake in 09-10.

The Minister asks for her message of personal thanks to be shared with everyone involved in delivering vaccination services, and I would like to share her comments on this blog.

The letter reads:

I was very pleased to see the Public Health Wales annual report on the routine childhood vaccination programme. I noted particularly that, national uptake of all vaccinations by one year old is at the 95% target. Also that uptake of both MMR doses continues to increase towards target. This is all very good news.

There is still some way to go to reach target in the pneumococcal and Hib/MenC levels and uptake in the teenage booster is worryingly low. I am expecting to see improvements in these programmes during this year.

Vaccination is the best way of protecting children – and the wider community – against potentially very serious illnesses. We will achieve high uptake levels in all childhood programmes only through the efforts of local health professionals who support parents in making informed decisions about vaccination. I therefore want to thank everyone involved for their hard work last year when considerable challenges were faced during the swine flu pandemic.

I would appreciate this message of personal thanks being shared with everyone involved in delivering vaccination services.