Unvaccinated children would be barred from childcare in NSW under new proposals

Parents who oppose vaccinations on conscientious grounds won’t allowed to enrol their children at New South Wales childcare centres under legislation to be introduced by the state opposition.

Labor leader Luke Foley announced the policy on Sunday and said the legislation, set to be introduced this week, would plug the loophole which had allowed specialist anti-vaccination childcare centres to be set up.

The changes won’t affect children who can’t be vaccinated for medical reasons, such as a specialised cancer treatment.

“We need to be encouraging vaccinations not discouraging them,” Foley said in a statement.

“Vaccinations are the only way to protect against serious diseases like polio, mumps, whooping cough, meningococcal, diphtheria and tetanus.”

Foley said his plan would also cover family day care operations.

The announcement comes after an unvaccinated NSW girl was diagnosed with tetanus earlier this month. It’s believed the seven-year-old picked up the disease through an open wound on her foot while playing in the garden of her northern NSW home.

The case prompted renewed debate in the north coast region, which has some of the lowest immunisation rates in Australia.

Unvaccinated children would be barred from childcare in NSW under new proposals

EU proposals could outlaw giant NHS database

Researchers and major health-related charities say the digital storage of mass data will advance medical science, assisting them understand the causes of ailment, spot side-results to new medication and detect outbreaks of infectious illnesses.

Privacy campaigners claim that men and women could be identified by drugs and insurance firms who could use info to target items and profit from people’s illnesses, though officials say this would not be permitted.

Underneath the scheme, patients’ data will be automatically uploaded into the care.data system unless of course an personal chooses to opt out.

Board papers drawn up by Department of Wellness (DoH) officials warn that proposed EU laws to harmonise rules on information protection would not enable such a program – due to the fact they state that men and women must give explicit consent, realizing the distinct purpose for which information is becoming employed.

The paper drawn up by Peter Knight, DoH deputy director of research, details and intelligence, says ministers are now negotiating with member states in Europe because of their worries.

Pamela Forde, data safety officer for the Royal University of Physicians, explained the changes would not only suggest the axing of the database, but would kill off most main research on illness. She mentioned: “The modifications currently being proposed are truly far-reaching and would indicate a lot of large scale analysis would be impossible.”

The Ministry of Defence is major negotiations on the information protection legislation, and ministers have presently expressed concern that present proposals create also a lot bureaucracy and place also substantial a burden on companies.

A spokesman for the Department of Wellness explained: “We are entirely aware of the adverse influence this would have both on care.information and on United kingdom analysis and we are functioning with the Ministry of Justice to negotiate changes.”

EU proposals could outlaw giant NHS database