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Yet a number of experts , including Professor Bedford , are not convinced that anti-vax sentiment or vaccine hesitancy have been significant drivers of reduced immunisation uptake .
Furthermore , as Ms White points out , patients asking questions about their own healthcare is not a bad thing , provided there are trained professionals available to answer those questions .
Ms White says : ‘ There is a healthy debate to be had and , particularly with adolescents , we should be encouraging people to take responsibility for their own health and ask those questions .’
Helen Donovan , nurse consultant and vaccination expert , tells Nursing in Practice that while people might be asking more questions , this does not necessarily mean they are ‘ vaccine hesitant ’.
‘ It ’ s quite normal for people to have questions ,’ she says , ‘ but that just means they are normal parents who want to make sure they are doing the right thing for their children . Studies done year on year show the number of people refusing vaccines is actually very low .
‘ We cannot underestimate the importance of staff who are really well trained and educated . If you don ’ t have a good education within the staff , then you lose confidence from the public very quickly .
‘ Staff need to feel confident to go the extra mile when having those conversations , so education is critical .’
Improving vaccine access When discussing how to improve vaccination uptake clinicians may reference the ‘ Three Cs ’ model : Confidence , Complacency , Convenience .
An educated workforce with time to speak to patients can help bring down complacency and boost confidence , but that has little effect if patients can ’ t access those services and workforce to begin with .
For Dr Kumar , increasing convenience was her primary goal when she implemented a multigenerational home-visiting service in Slough , where most practices were missing their target for preschool boosters and 14 % of the population live in multigenerational households . Funded by the local vaccination board , local primary care networks identified all such households with children who had not had their booster .
Dr Kumar says more than 150 different languages are spoken in Slough , so it is hard to achieve an increase in uptake of immunisation services by simply sending out invitation letters as normal .
Home visits were arranged to create an opportunity to offer vaccinations in peoples own homes . Initially ,