Dr Christopher Stephenson, GP Partner at Bewick Crescent Surgery explains the changes to flu vaccinations and delivery schedules this year.
This flu season the Surgery will be giving two different types of flu vaccination as
NHS England have authorised the use of an adjuvanted trivalent flu vaccination called Fluad for anyone aged 65 and over. ‘Adjuvanted’ means that the vaccination has an added ingredient (squalene) which helps the vaccination get into the immune system faster. As we age our immune system becomes less efficient so it is felt that this vaccine offers better protection for this group of patients.
Patients under 65 will get the usual quadrivalent vaccine. Both vaccines do the same job and offer the same protection against flu, but one just works faster. Although the over 65 flu programme is a universal programme (ie anyone can have it) people under 65 only qualify if they have a chronic condition such as asthma, COPD, diabetes, or are pregnant or a carer. If you are unsure whether you can have the vaccine for free please ask any of our staff or have a look at our website; www.bewickcrescentsurgery.nhs.net
As the number of NHS patients across the UK who are entitled to a free flu vaccination runs into the hundreds of thousands, NHS England restrict the number of vaccines available to individual surgeries. This year Bewick Crescent receive their first small supply of Fluad in mid-September but will not get the first batch of quadrivalent vaccines until the end of September. This means that different patients will be offered the vaccine at different times. As well as controlling the supply of vaccines NHS England have very strict rules about which vaccines surgeries are allowed to give to which patients so, for example, we are not allowed to give a Fluad vaccine to an under 65 year old even though we do get that stock earlier. For anyone who is concerned about this remember that flu does not generally circulate until well into the winter (the ‘flu season’ officially starts in December) so waiting until October for your flu vaccination does not put you at increased risk.
Despite the extra controls on supplies this year we still intend to hold our usual Saturday walk-in clinics, but because of our delivery schedule have added an extra date. The first walk-in on Saturday 22 September 2018 will be for over 65s only. Unfortunately, if anyone else turns up we will not be able to give a vaccine as we won’t have had our quadrivalent delivery by then. The following two walk-ins on Saturday 27 September and Saturday 06 October 2018 will be for anyone who is eligible for the flu vaccination.
For our Heighington patients we will be arranging walk-in clinics at the branch surgery after we have had our second delivery of both types of vaccine, and expect these to happen in early October. Any patients from Heighington who would like to have their vaccination earlier are invited to come along to one of our Saturday clinics at Bewick Crescent.
Remember flu can be a debilitating and even life-threatening infection so although arrangements are a bit more complicated this year, please do still come and get your flu vaccination.
