NEWS

Each year from September through to January the NHS runs a seasonal flu vaccination campaign aiming to vaccinate all patients who are at risk of developing more serious complications from the virus. These include people aged 65 years and over, pregnant women and those with certain health conditions.

In recent years many pharmacies have also been commissioned to provide NHS flu vaccination services. These services sit alongside the nationally commissioned GP vaccination service, giving patients another choice of venue for their vaccination and helping commissioners to meet their local NHS vaccination targets. Many schemes demonstrated high levels of patient satisfaction and evidence that pharmacy vaccination is accessible, often capturing ‘hard to reach’ patients who would not otherwise take up the offer of vaccination.

Immunisation is one of the most successful and cost-effective health protection interventions and is a cornerstone of public health. High immunisation rates are key to preventing the spread of infectious disease, complications and possible early death among individuals and protecting the population’s health through both individual and herd immunity.

For most healthy people, influenza is an unpleasant but usually self-limiting disease. However, children, older people, pregnant women and those with underlying disease are at particular risk of severe illness if they catch it.

The aim of the seasonal influenza vaccination programme is to protect those who are most at risk of serious illness or death should they develop influenza, by offering protection against the most prevalent strains of influenza virus.

The Community Pharmacy Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Advanced Service (Flu Vaccination Service) will support NHS England and NHS Improvement, on behalf of Public Health England in providing an effective vaccination programme in England and it aims:

1. to sustain and maximise uptake of flu vaccine in at risk groups by continuing to build the capacity of community pharmacies as an alternative to general practice;
2. to provide more opportunities and improve convenience for eligible patients to access flu vaccinations; and
3. to reduce variation and provide consistent levels of population coverage of community pharmacy flu vaccination across England by providing a national framework.

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