{"id":89094,"date":"2025-10-20T01:41:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T01:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/89094\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T01:41:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T01:41:09","slug":"health-and-disability-commissioner-girl-given-boostrix-jab-at-school-against-mothers-wishes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/89094\/","title":{"rendered":"Health and Disability Commissioner: Girl given Boostrix jab at school against mother\u2019s wishes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The names of the family and school have been redacted from the HDC<\/a> report, released today.<\/p>\n

The HDC said that although the free immunisation programme is provided at schools across the country, it is carried out by Health NZ<\/a>, the Government health agency which was the subject of its investigation.<\/p>\n

Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner Vanessa Caldwell said she noted the principal of the school \u201cdid what he could\u201d in following up after the incident, and had since stopped hosting the immunisation programme. <\/p>\n

Caldwell found that Health NZ breached the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers\u2019 Rights in vaccinating the girl without consent. <\/p>\n

Ticked box denying consent<\/p>\n

The girl\u2019s mother said before the immunisations, she completed a consent form. <\/p>\n

She ticked a box on the form showing she did not consent to her daughter receiving the Boostrix jab at the school, preferring to have it administered by her GP.<\/p>\n

\"DeputyDeputy Health and Disability Commissioner Dr Vanessa Caldwell. Photo \/ James Gilberd Photography <\/p>\n

On June 17, 2024, the students were called for their immunisations, but the 11-year-old initially stayed in class as she was aware her mother had not consented.<\/p>\n

However, a teacher told her to go with her classmates. <\/p>\n

On arriving at the school hall, the girl gave the form with the withdrawn consent to the first nurse she saw. <\/p>\n

This nurse acknowledged that she shouldn\u2019t be getting the jab and asked another nurse to phone her mother to check. This call was never made.<\/p>\n

Girl \u2018confused and stressed\u2019 by questions<\/p>\n

The girl said she was \u201cconfused and stressed\u201d by a lot of questions from the second nurse that she did not understand or know the answers to, including whether she had a \u201cconcussion or stuff\u201d.<\/p>\n

The second nurse told the girl \u201cyou look old enough to have this\u201d and sent her to a third nurse, who gave her the injection.<\/p>\n

The second nurse later told the HDC that she saw the tick on the form and took it as consent, even though it was in the box denying consent.<\/p>\n

She said a medical history section under the heading \u201ccomplete if your child is receiving the Boostrix immunisation\u201d had been completed.<\/p>\n

A section under the heading \u201ccomplete if you do not want your child to receive the Boostrix immunisation at school\u201d had not been filled in.<\/p>\n

Caldwell said that Health NZ had breached the code of patient rights.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The girl) was administered the Boostrix immunisation vaccine, despite the box on the consent form having been ticked clearly to state that (her mother) did not consent for (her daughter) to have this, and at least one of the nurses having been aware of the non-consent,\u201d Caldwell said.<\/p>\n

Caldwell was also critical of the nurses for contacting the girl\u2019s grandmother to tell her about the error, and disclosing the information about it to her, before the mother.<\/p>\n

Although the grandmother had been listed on the form as an emergency contact, the mother\u2019s number was also clearly visible.<\/p>\n

Health NZ also failed to contact and update the girl\u2019s mother after she had complained to the HDC, despite saying that they would. <\/p>\n

Health NZ told the HDC that it took the errors \u201cvery seriously\u201d.<\/p>\n

It provided the Public Health Nursing Service team with extra training a week after the event, and asked its staff to complete training modules and \u201cput in place triple-checking of consent forms\u201d.<\/p>\n

Caldwell recommended that the nurse who misread the forms should write an apology to the girl and her mother, and complete a learning module about informed consent.<\/p>\n

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME\u2019s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke\u2019s Bay. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The names of the family and school have been redacted from the HDC report, released today. The HDC…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[9092,95,1975,67230,14903,1054,6868,19724,134,67231,30510,111,139,69,4062,24529],"class_list":{"0":"post-89094","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-against","9":"tag-and","10":"tag-at","11":"tag-boostrix","12":"tag-commissioner","13":"tag-disability","14":"tag-girl","15":"tag-given","16":"tag-health","17":"tag-jab","18":"tag-mothers","19":"tag-new-zealand","20":"tag-newzealand","21":"tag-nz","22":"tag-school","23":"tag-wishes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}