Not vaccinated? Find another doctor.

Rick - Mamamia Friday 17 February 2012 9:15am

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A growing number of doctors in the United States are telling families to find another clinic if they refuse vaccinations for their children. In some states as many as one fifth or one third of medical doctors are flexing their muscle and telling belligerent parents they’re ‘fired’.

It’s a controversial move that’s raising questions about what should be done in a country where the rate of vaccination is around 70 per cent but varies drastically from vaccine to vaccine. The Wall Street Journal reports:

“In a study of Connecticut pediatricians published last year, some 30% of 133 doctors said they had asked a family to leave their practice for vaccine refusal, and a recent survey of 909 Midwestern pediatricians found that 21% reported discharging families for the same reason.

By comparison, in 2001 and 2006 about 6% of physicians said they “routinely” stopped working with families due to parents’ continued vaccine refusal and 16% “sometimes” dismissed them, according to surveys conducted then by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

For Allan LaReau of Kalamazoo, Michigan, and his 11 colleagues at Bronson Rambling Road Pediatrics, who chose in 2010 to stop working with vaccine-refusing families, a major factor was the concern that unimmunized children could pose a danger in the waiting room to infants or sick children who haven’t yet been fully vaccinated.

In one case, an unvaccinated child came in with a high fever and Dr. LaReau feared the patient might have meningitis, a contagious, potentially deadly infection of the brain and spinal cord for which a vaccine commonly is given. “I lost a lot more sleep than I usually do” worrying about the situation, he said.”

Mamamia spoke to the President of the Australian Medical Association Dr Steve Hambleton to ask whether a similar desire to ‘fire’ parents existed here.

“That’s not really something that occurs here at all,” he said.

“Australia has a good vaccination rate around 90 per cent, that used to be 60 per cent so we’ve made big gains with good public education campaigns. We have a lot of support for our vaccination programs.

“Of course there are individuals in every area who choose not to vaccinate. We have conscientious objector forms for these people which they can fill out and not have to get immunised for themselves or their kids.”

While repeating the AMA would never have a policy which required doctors to move vaccine-objectors along, Dr Hambleton said he was extremely concerned about the glut of misinformation in the market about vaccines.

“I am absolutely worried about some people in the anti-vaccination movement, yes,” he said.

“People who claim to be an authority on the subject matter, people who claim to be experts on vaccines … well, all I can say is you really need to look at their credentials.

“There has been a sustained and clear distortion of the evidence relating to vaccine safety in Australia and I must say to anybody in this area, you need to look at these things dispassionately.”

One legal case bringing some of the vaccination issues to a head will be heard in New South Wales next week.

The Australian Vaccination Network (AVN), frequently referred to as the Anti-Vaccination Network, will appear in the New South Wales Supreme Court challenging the public warning and report issued by the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC).

The HCCC found that the AVN:

• provides information that is solely anti-vaccination
• contains information that is incorrect and misleading
• quotes selectively from research to suggest that vaccination may be dangerous.

The AVN is also fighting a separate battle with the NSW Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing (OLGR) which revoked the charity status of the AVN after it identified possible breaches. That case is pending, awaiting the outcome from the Supreme Court case.

Mamamia will be attending that case.

What do you think about doctors refusing to treat families who reject vaccinations?