The Director-General of Health has confirmed the vaccine exemption process has been made more robust, following general practitioners being put under pressure to provide approval and illegitimate exemptions being issued.
"There was a lot of activity... any practitioner could give them," Dr Ashley Bloomefield said.
"There were a lot of stories, some in the media, around that so off the back of that and requests from practitioners, we centralised that."
A Ministry of Health panel was established yesterday to assess the evidence provided in exemption applications from qualified medical practitioners on behalf of patients.
The panel will make a recommendation to the Director-General of Health on the exemption, and Bloomfield will make the final decision.
A very small number of vaccine exemptions are likely to be approved, Bloomfield said, and the new process provides a safeguard to the legitimacy of exemptions.
Exemptions can be granted for a maximum of six months.
The Immunisation Advisory Centre reported in September that the Pfizer vaccine has an 'excellent safety profile.'
'There are only a handful of eligible people (fewer than 100) in Aotearoa who cannot receive it at all. The list of reasons why the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine may not be suitable is short,' the organisation published on its website.
Serious vaccine reactions and some heart conditions are among the criteria for exemption applications to be considered.
In a guidance document, the health ministry stated an exemption should only be approved for patients where a suitable, different Covid-19 vaccine is not available.
The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners is welcoming the strengthened process and information.
"I think people have sort of felt under duress to provide something and you want to maintain your relationship with your patient but having no clarity has made it very difficult," RNZCGP president Dr Samantha Murton said.
Murton said some general practitioners have been abused and others have granted approvals for the wrong reasons, including anti-vaccine ideologies.
"I'm so glad there's a process in place... it makes our lives so much easier," she said.
However, she said conversations with people who are seeking vaccine exemptions to keep their jobs which are subject to vaccine mandates will remain a challenge.
A minority of doctors, midwives and teachers sought legal action in the High Court in Wellington on Monday to reverse the vaccine mandate ahead of the November 15 deadline for them to have had their first dose.
"You have the right to say no, that's fundamental, your honour, absolutely fundamental to our constitution and if Parliament wants to limit that right, they have to say so explicitly," lawyer Christopher Griggs told Justice Matthew Palmer in his opening remarks.
Crown lawyers representing Covid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins said laws created during the pandemic enable ministers to act flexibly and include requiring people to take actions to limit the impact of Covid-19.
A decision on the judicial review was reserved by Justice Palmer.
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