A senior children's doctor says a new vaccine monitoring system will provide quick advice to parents of children who get sick after receiving vaccinations.

 

The Western Australian Health Department's new Vaccine Safety Surveillance system will allow parents and doctors to report adverse reactions via an online database.

 

The system was developed after the Health Department was criticised for delays in responding to dozens of adverse reactions among children who received the seasonal flu vaccine last year.

 

Princess Margaret Hospital's director of clinical research and education Peter Richmond says the hardest part of detecting vaccine problems is connecting the dots.

 

"We need to have good timely information that needs to be reviewed, to make sense of it, and where clarification is needed then that can be done," he said.

 

Further information about the WAVSS system is available here.