Winter planning – Flu Vaccination
The start of winter vaccination season is slowly creeping up on us and closer than you think, although the winter programme does not begin until the 1st of September, lots of organisation needs to take place before, so now is the time to start planning.
Key areas to consider include:
- How will you guarantee all those eligible for a vaccine are contacted and booked in?
- How will you staff your flu clinics?
- How will you ensure you have enough vaccines?
- How will you safely store your vaccines?
Patient Eligibility
The below groups will be eligible for a flu vaccine from 1 September 2023:
- People aged 65 years and over
- People aged 6 months to under 65 years in clinical risk groups
- Pregnant women
- All children aged 2 or 3 years on 31 August 2023
- Primary school aged children (from Reception to Year 6)
- Those in long-stay residential care homes
- Carers in receipt of carer’s allowance, or those who are the main carer of an elderly or disabled person
- Close contacts of immunocompromised individuals
- Frontline workers in a social care setting without an employer led occupational health scheme, including those working for a registered residential care or nursing home, registered domiciliary care providers, voluntary managed hospice providers and those that are employed by those who receive direct payments (personal budgets) or Personal Health budgets, such as Personal Assistants
- See here for the full letter – National flu immunisation programme 2023 to 2024 letter – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Recommended vaccines
Find the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation Advice on influenza vaccines for 2023/24 here – JCVI Statement on Influenza Vaccines 2023-24_final version.pdf | Powered by Box.
Previous years national vaccine uptake
From 1 September 2022 to 28 February 2023, cumulative influenza vaccine uptake in GP registered patients was as follows:
- 9% of patients had the vaccine in 2022 – 2023 compared with 82.3% in 2021 to 2022
- The uptake of patients aged 6 months to under 65 years old in one or more clinical risk groups was 49.1% in 2022 to 2023 compared with 52.9% in 2021 to 2022
- The uptake of pregnant women was 35.0% in 2022 – 2023 compared with 37.9% in 2021 to 2022
- Patients aged 2 and 3 years was 43.7% in 2021 – 2022, compared with 50.1% in 2022 to 2023
- Patients aged 50 to 64 years and not in a clinical risk group was 40.6% and is not comparable between seasons as this group became eligible on 15 October 2022 compared with 1 September 2021 the previous season
The full report can be found here: Seasonal influenza vaccine uptake in GP patients: winter season 2022 to 2023 (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Providers are expected to deliver a 100% offer of the vaccine to eligible groups and should aim to equal or exceed last season’s (2022 to 2023) uptake (particularly in clinical risk groups).
With healthcare workers, the goal is to vaccinate over 75% of staff, this is not only for their own protection, but also to reduce transmission to vulnerable patients.
The full annual flu programme guidance (GOV.UK) can be found here – National flu immunisation programme plan 2023 to 2024 – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
