If COVID-19 has shown us anything, it’s how important vaccines are in keeping our community protected against disease. While the world gets ever closer to a COVID-19 vaccine, the City of Playford Immunisation Service continues to provide protection to the community for a range of other potentially life-altering diseases.
The City of Playford’s Immunisation Team has a combined 30 years’ experience, with the Community Health Nurse administering immunisations for over 16 years alone. Our nurse is supported by Marg and Dianne in administration, who are passionate about their work.
“There is no need in our country to be suffering from polio, whooping cough and other diseases when we can vaccinate against them,” said Dianne. In the last financial year, up to 8,500 people were immunised through the service. “We’ve been extra busy giving flu shots and our usual clinic vaccines,” said Marg.
While the lockdown during COVID-19 saw less immunisations administered than the previous year, outbreaks of immunisable communicable diseases were down to less than 850 in the community – just over half of the previous year. “We believe the social distancing protocols and lockdown have definitely lowered transmission rates,” our Community Health Nurse said.
The team works within schools and provides privately booked worksite vaccination clinics. The worksite sessions are usually booked for flu vaccines, and are often taken up by school teachers and support staff, as well as other local businesses.
Council’s public clinics are conducted twice weekly on Mondays at GP Plus Healthcare Elizabeth, and Thursdays at UniHealth Munno Para. The team also provides a specialised New Arrivals and Refugee Immunisation (NARI) clinic on the third Wednesday of the month, which deals with more complex cases, as some families arrive from countries where vaccine access is limited or non-existent.
Our Immunisation Team are here to support you, so if you’re due for a vaccine, don’t wait – drop-in and have a chat with our friendly team.
