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Pharmacies gear up for flu vaccine season

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Pharmacies gear up for flu vaccine season

Community pharmacy contractors that fully meet the requirements for provision of the Community Pharmacy Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Advanced Service now have the green light to provide the service from 1 September. This follows the amendment of the Secretary of State Directions.

Commenting on the publication of the Directions, Alastair Buxton, Director of NHS Services at PSNC, said: "The completion of the regulatory changes means community pharmacy teams can now start offering the NHS Flu Vaccination Service to eligible patients from the 1st September.

I hope that pharmacy teams will really get behind this important service, like they did last year, to show patients and the NHS just what community pharmacy is capable of."

  • Data published today (31 August 2017) by Public Health England (PHE) has shown that the flu vaccine nasal spray reduced the risk of vaccinated children getting flu by 65.8% in the 2016 to 2017 season in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. 

    The UK programme plans to offer flu vaccine to all children aged 2 to 11 years with the aim of providing both direct protection to those children who have been vaccinated, but also by reducing their risk of infecting others. This will indirectly protect other vulnerable members of the population such as those with weakened immune systems and the elderly, maintains PHE. 

    Jenny Harries, deputy medical director for Public Health England (PHE) said: "It is good news that last winter children were particularly well protected against flu with the vaccine nasal spray. We know children can spread flu more than others and if we can keep them well it means that the infection is less likely to pass to those who are at high risk. We also saw the risk of flu fall by over 40% in vaccinated adults under 65 allowing more people to stay well last winter."

    The childhood flu vaccine programme is being expanded to include children in school year 4 in 2017 to 2018. Also, 4 year olds, who were previously offered flu vaccination in general practice, will now be offered it at school in reception class. So all children from reception class through to year 4 will be offered flu vaccination in the forthcoming season.
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