Childhood immunisation
The pneumococcal vaccine was added to the childhood immunisation schedule on 4 September.
The vaccine will be offered to each child beginning his or her routine programme of immunisations at the age of two months. In addition, as part of a nationwide catch-up campaign, every child up to the age of two years will also be offered the vaccine.
An educational resource for healthcare professionals involved in immunisation has been developed by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. It is available from the end of this month at www.prevenar.co.uk.
The resource comes in the form of a tool kit and includes information on the new vaccination schedule (including a downloadable wall poster), pneumococcal disease in children, vaccine administration and communicating with parents. The kit is designed to be aligned to the Health Protection Agency core curriculum (minimum standards for immunisation training, core topic six — ‘Communicating with patients and parents’) accessible via www.hpa.org.uk.
LEAFLET
Who regulates health and social care professionals?
A leaflet entitled ‘Who regulates health and social care professionals?’ has been produced by the Joint UK Health and Social Care Regulators’ Public and Patient Involvement Group (PPI), on behalf of the UK’s 13 health and social care regulators.
It aims to provide a signposting tool on regulation for the general public, outlining which regulatory body is responsible for monitoring each profession and what regulation means. The leaflet can be downloaded as a PDF from the GMC websites (www.gmc-uk.org) among others, and is also available in large print and in 12 languages.
