Health New Zealand shows commitment to protecting our Pacific seasonal workforce partners

Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora has been vaccinating Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) workers to protect them from catching measles. The risk of a measles outbreak in New Zealand is considered high currently, due to low immunisation rates nationally and internationally.

In Hawke’s Bay, our Pacific Public Health led RSE outreach clinic on 3-4 August saw 335 seasonal workers from Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu receive the Health New Zealand funded protection as part of our whanaungatanga commitment to our Pacific neighbour partners.

The RSE workers were immunised with the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine to prevent an outbreak and spread of measles among these vulnerable migrant groups, and potentially from taking it back to their Pacific home countries. Similar clinics have been run in Bay of Plenty, Marlborough, Nelson and Northland as part of this National Public Health Service initiative.

The Hawke’s Bay project lead, Pacific Health Central Regional Director, Sipaia Kupa, says because there was no Pacific provider with Outreach Immunisation Service (OIS), there was a need to codesign and implement a plan with Public Health and other stakeholders. The clinic saw close collaboration across Health NZ with industry, government and Pacific non-government organisations.

“Hawke’s Bay Public Health provided clinical leadership supported by the Pacific Regional Coordination Hub (PaRCH) team who travelled from the North, our local Pacific Health Hospital and Specialist Service provided clinical, admin and translation support while Taeaomanino Trust and King’s Force provided health and wellbeing support. It was a collaborative approach requiring repurposing of existing resources.”

This approach also saw the local health system provide education sessions to 450 RSE workers prior to the clinic days which took place at Mr Apple’s RSE accommodation in Mahora and other sites.

“We also vaccinated RSE workers from Irrigation Services,” added Ms Kupa who noted that success was due to the trusted relationships developed in the joint planning process especially with the team at Mr Apple. “And this resulted in our RSE workers being taken care of in the Pacific way.”

Lessons to incorporate into future vaccination clinics include ensuring suitable project support, clinical and logistics leads, a readily available vaccinator workforce, having appropriate language translation services and clear communications, and ensuring staff are cognisant of Pacific cultural and religious needs like Seventh Day Adventists’ Sabbath being on a Saturday requiring vaccination on Sunday.

Further MMR vaccination events for RSE workers are planned for Bay of Plenty, Nelson-Tasman and Marlborough. The programme continues through until December.

The Hawke’s Bay event was led by the Central Region Pacific Health Directorate in collaboration with the National and Regional Public Health teams, HSS Pacific Health Hawke’s Bay Team, Pacific Regional Coordination Hub (PaRCH), Taeaomanino Trust, King’s Force, and Kāinga Pasifika.