Flu Letters from NHS England

Posted on October 29th, 2020

The Practice is aware that patients have been receiving letters from NHS England, encouraging them to get a flu jab.

Unfortunately some of these letters have been sent to patients who do not qualify for a flu jab and this has caused some irritation when patients call for an appointment.

The flu vaccine is given to people who:

• are 65 and over (including those who’ll be 65 by 31 March 2021)
• have certain health conditions
• are pregnant
• are in a long-stay residential care
• receive a carer’s allowance, or are the main carer for an older or disabled person who may be at risk if you get sick
• live with someone who’s at high risk from coronavirus (on the NHS shielded patient list)
• frontline health or social care workers.

As soon as we have finished vaccinating the above cohorts we will be instructed to move onto the 50-64 year olds and will be provided with extra vaccine to carry this out. As soon as authorised to do so we will be writing to this group inviting them to attend for vaccination.

If you receive one of these letters and were not expecting to, please check against the criteria for flu vaccination which can be found here:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/flu-influenza-vaccine/

Thank You.