On Prevention Day, April 6, GP Ted van Essen argued for the structural organization of a very specific form of prevention: a national vaccination program for all ages. During the GSK breakfast session prior to the Zorgvisie Day of Prevention in Utrecht, he championed easy access and a coordinating role for the GGD – in collaboration with general practitioners, pharmacists, hospitals and JGZ consultation offices – in the implementation. Ted van Essen: “Make sure the front office is well organised, and arrange the financing later in the back office. If you do not burden the patient with this, you prevent a low vaccination rate and achieve good protection.”
During the breakfast session, frightening sheets with death figures sometimes came by, due to infectious diseases that can be prevented with vaccinations. “All in all, it shows that a lot of health benefits can be achieved,” said the former GP. “But we lose a lot of profit because the introduction takes so long. On average, vaccines in the Netherlands are ‘on the shelf’ for about nine years before they go into the arm through a program.” How come? Lack of knowledge: little urgency, slow assessment and underutilization of routes to the poor, explains Van Essen. For example, the first-ever chickenpox vaccine had to wait more than 15 years for any advice from the Health Council at all, the advice on the import of the HPV vaccine for boys took about three years and a study into feasibility and affordability delayed the policy response to maternal pertussis vaccination by about two and a half years. Only the COVID vaccinations managed to find their way to the arm relatively quickly.
More brightness
Not all vaccines find all poor people, Ted van Essen shows during his breakfast session on the basis of a list of doubts about the flu shot. “A lot of people think: it won’t help. They are concerned about safety. They are prone to antivax noises. And campaigns or political commitment are not enough.” But the most important reasons not to vaccinate are that access is difficult and the reimbursement is complicated or poorly arranged, the flu expert argues. Sometimes someone has to go to the GP, sometimes to the GGD, sometimes to somewhere else. Sometimes financing is arranged through health insurance, sometimes through the government, sometimes in another way. It’s a maze. That has to be different.
Directing at GGD
“That is why we have to conclude a Prevention Agreement on vaccinations,” says Van Essen. “The Vaccination Alliance can take up its role more emphatically in getting there. and must structurally regulate implementation and implementation. Ted van Essen: “The regional implementation must be directed by the GGD, in collaboration with general practitioners, pharmacists, hospitals and JGZ consultation bureaus. Based on the guidelines, they know exactly which vaccinations adults need. By reporting this to the GGD, they can automatically call up people. He has extensive experience with that.” This makes it easier to give multiple shots at the same time – think of combinations of flu and corona vaccinations or combine the pneumococcal shot with that for shingles. Compare it to the vaccination program for children, who sometimes get seven things at once. Finally, Ted van Essen has one more tip: “Just give it. Make sure that everyone can easily get vaccinations via a central front office, and arrange financing efficiently via a back office. Do not burden the patient with this, because that lowers the vaccination rate.”
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