Open - Midweek Flu Clinics: We have now completed our 2 x Saturday morning flu clinics with great success, vaccinating approx 1300 patients in just 2 mornings, taking blood pressures and reminding patients of health checks required and now have a host of midweek clinics & appointments available doing exactly the same, so if you have not booked your appt yet, please do so and have your flu jab and checks in one appt to save you, and us time. Thank you to all patients who attended the Saturday clinics and for all the praise we received at how efficiently the morning clinics went. For those patients unable to attend Saturday clinics, we now have a whole range of midweek clinics and there are also some evening appts available should you struggle to do a midday appt, just speak with our reception team who will help book your an appointment to suit. Please check you are eligible. We will continue to remind those patients who fall within the "at risk" categories listed below.
Help us, so we can help you.......
We have repeatedly notified as many patients as possible by the usual methods of text; email; website; newsletter and internally at the surgery to book their flu vaccine. If you have not yet had this, do please call the surgery and book your appointment. We still have a good stock of both flu vaccines.
The surgery purchases flu vaccines on your behalf so please have your vaccine with us. GP surgeries run like businesses and in order to survive, the flu vaccine programme helps generate income by meeting NHS England targets. If that money goes elsewhere, surgeries struggle to survive and can no longer offer the service. When we vaccinate you against flu we also obtain vital data that is necessary for your medical record and care. If you choose to go elsewhere for your vaccine such as a pharmacy or supermarket, we cannot gather this information, and they do not gather this for us, so please book in here. We work fast and are practised in vaccinating you, informing you of updates required and gathering data so this does not take long. This saves all of us a lot of additional work and crucially, also saves on valuable appointments.
We will also advise you at the same time if you are eligible to be vaccinated against shingles, and/or pneumonia and can offer to do this at the same time.
And finally, we also check if you are overdue a review for areas such as your blood pressure, medication, asthma, diabetes etc.
If you are eligible for the free flu vaccine, please book your vaccine at the surgery and help us gather your data and ensure your health is up to date all in one appointment. Have your flu vaccine in an environment that you know, with clinicians and staff you know and where we have your FULL medical records immediately to hand.
Mythbusters:
· We have not asked ANY pharmacy or supermarket to give you the flu vaccine on our behalf or gather vital medical updates. We do prefer to do this ourselves please.
· You are NOT doing us a favour, or saving us time by having your flu vaccine somewhere else.
· The pharmacies and supermarkets are NOT doing us a favour by giving you the vaccine.
· Pharmacies and supermarkets do not have access to your FULL medical record/history or know you as well as we do.
Important: please read this article in full before you book an appointment.
An appointment is required for ALL clinics. We do not offer a walk in clinic. For our Saturday clinics, you will be given a 5 minute vaccine window time with several other patients as we have up to 6 staff vaccinating at the same time who can vaccinate 12-15 patients within these time frames. PLEASE DO NOT ARRIVE BEFORE YOUR ALLOTED TIME. We often find patients ignore their appointment time and arrive early because of shopping, a day out or because another family member had an earlier appointment. This causes delays and confusion whilst our teams try to find your name in our clinical appointment system of 500-600 other appointments. If you do arrive early, you may be asked to take a seat in our waiting room until your appointment time.
The Saturday morning clinics are very fast moving clinics. Patients arrive, walk straight through preferably with their arm ready with no need to close doors and undress, are vaccinated and leave. We do not deal with any general queries during Saturday flu clinics, but we will take the opportunity to check your blood pressure, remind you of any other routine tests or medication, health reviews you are due or even outstanding.
Reminders are issued to those eligible for the free vaccine by way of the very successful text message system and email system notifications. We do not issue postal letters to eligible patients due to high numbers and the costs implications involved. Therefore if you are an eligible patient, or are a carer for an eligible patient, we recommend you provide us with either a mobile number or email address. You do not have to wait until you receive a reminder to book your appointment, if you know you qualify. However please be aware that you will be asked by our reception team to briefly state why you are eligible.
ARE YOU ELIGIBLE:
The following are eligible for flu vaccination - please note criterias have changed and you may no longer be eligible:
All patients aged 65 and over are automatically eligible for the free flu vaccine.
At Risk Categories: Patients aged from 6 months to 64 years of age with a serious medical condition such as:
· chronic (long-term) respiratory disease, such as severe asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or bronchitis
· chronic heart disease, such as heart failure
· chronic kidney disease at stage three, four or five
· chronic liver disease
· chronic neurological disease, such as Parkinson’s disease or motor neurone disease, or learning disability
· diabetes
· splenic dysfunction or asplenia
· a weakened immune system due to disease (such as HIV/AIDS) or treatment (such as cancer treatment)
· morbidly obese (defined as BMI of 40 and above)
· All pregnant women
· Frontline Health & Social Workers
CHILDREN VACCINES:
· all those aged two and three (but not four years or older) on 31 August 2019.
· all children in reception and school years 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
Children aged 4 years BEFORE or on 31st August 2019 are vaccinated as part of the school vaccine program. WE ARE NOT CONTRACTED TO VACCINATE THESE CHILDREN and therefore not funded to vaccinate. The school vaccine programme is responsible for notifying parents of school clinic dates, plus any catch up clinics. We do not have this information. Please do NOT miss these vaccine dates. We are unable to help if you do. Any child aged 4 years in any AT RISK category above can be vaccinated at surgery as we are contracted and funded to vaccinate at risk patients.