Northern Ireland is extending its free flu vaccination programme to the 50-64 age group as flu rates have increased “rapidly since the beginning of December”, the country’s Department of Health (DH) announced yesterday (January 9).
The group will “shortly” be able to receive the jab as “arrangements are being completed at pace to make the vaccination available through community pharmacies, trust vaccination clinics and GP surgeries”, it said.
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NI health minister Mike Nesbitt said that “flu season has had an early and sharp start” and is “contributing to the pressures currently being seen” in hospitals, which are expected to “continue or grow in the coming weeks”.
“The decision to extend the programme to everyone aged 50 to 64 years of age is a pragmatic approach based on the stock of vaccines that we have available and the pressures we are facing,” he added.
The extension is in addition to groups already eligible, including those aged 65 and over.
“No plans to expand”
In England, the 50-64 age group were eligible for free flu jabs during the COVID-19 pandemic but a government spokesperson confirmed that like last year, the temporary expansion to the flu programme is no longer required and not being considered.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DH) spokesperson yesterday told C+D that “decisions about the shape of our vaccination programmes including eligibility are guided by expert advice from the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) about how best to protect those most at risk from flu”.
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But health secretary Wes Streeting yesterday said that “this strain of flu has hit hard, putting more than three times as many patients into hospital compared to this time last year”.
And NHS England (NHSE) yesterday revealed that there was an average of 5,407 patients a day in hospital with flu last week, 3.5 times higher than the same week last year which stood at 1,548 patients for the week ending January 7 2024.
Several trusts have also declared critical incidents this week, which NHSE said is because of “exceptional demand caused by the colder weather and respiratory viruses”.
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A Welsh government spokesperson also told C+D yesterday that “there are no plans to expand the flu programme to include 50–64-year-olds in Wales” despite confirming that “high levels of flu are currently circulating in [its] communities”.
The Welsh government last month (December 4) announced a flu vaccination “mop-up” programme that aims to tackle low vaccination uptake to relieve “pressure on primary care services during this challenging period”.
Scotland’s public health minister Jenni Minto told C+D yesterday that the government “[has] not received data or clinical advice to support any expansion of the programme to those aged 50-64 without underlying health conditions or other groups”.
Flu jab stock “not easy to come by”
But Community Pharmacy Scotland (CPS) head of policy and development Adam Osprey told C+D this week (January 8) that flu vaccination stock is “now not easy to come by”, according to reports by the body’s members and patients in Scotland.
Osprey said that pharmacies “estimated their [private] flu vaccine order in February 2024” on the assumption that 50-64-year-olds, teachers and prison workers would be included in the NHS programme “as per the previous few years”.
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But dropping these groups from the eligibility criteria in September meant there was an “unexpected demand on private services” as those groups had been used to getting the service for free, he added.
“That demand was not planned for so there isn’t enough stock to cover everyone,” Osprey said.
It comes as CPS called for community pharmacy to be “involved in the early stages of planning each year” for flu vaccination stocks and for a “national NHS pharmacy flu service going forward” earlier this week (January 6).