National flu vaccine campaign to target health workers in England

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The National NHS Staff Seasonal Flu Vaccination Campaign aims to improve uptake after last year's figures showed just 34.7% of front-line workers had the vaccine.

In some trusts less than 10% of workers were vaccinated last winter.

Beginning this month, the campaign will spread the message about the importance of the flu jab. But it comes after the government recently ruled out a similar campaign for patients.

Over 600 deaths in the UK were directly caused by flu last winter, when the H1N1 swine flu strain circulated once again. Many more fatalities were linked to flu infection.

Dean Royles, director of the NHS Employers organisation, said: 'We want to help NHS staff to fight the flu, to protect the services they provide, their families and their patients. Flu has a hugely negative impact on the NHS and is fatal in too many cases.

http://www.gponline.com/News/article/1094308/national-flu-vaccine-campaign-target-health-workers-england/

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Re: National flu vaccine campaign to target health workers in England

Britain?s health workers urged to get flu shots to protect patients

Britain?s National Health Service (NHS) is urging its staff to take their flu shots amid fresh warnings that low vaccination rates among health professionals could lead to vulnerable patients getting infected and dying. The NHS's employers, health trade unions and the Department of Health have launched a campaign to tackle low immunization rates among frontline staff such as doctors and nurses.

Dr Lindsey Davies, president of the UK Faculty of Public Health, the UK's public health doctors, said staff who did not get vaccinated against seasonal flu were guilty of ?complete dereliction of duty? and could endanger the lives of at-risk patients such as babies, the elderly, pregnant women and those with breathing trouble.

Just 34.7% of healthcare workers got the jab last year, even though potentially fatal H1N1 swine flu was the predominant strain of flu over the winter months. That was up from the 26.4% who had it in 2009 but still well below the levels health experts say are necessary to minimize risk. But NHS figures released on Thursday show that in some places offering NHS care only tiny percentages of doctors and nurses were immunized last winter, even though the flu outbreak then led to more than 600 deaths.

For example, no doctor among the 41 associated with direct patient care working for Derby City primary care trust was vaccinated, while in Luton PCT just one of 145 doctors received a jab (0.7%) and in Heart of Birmingham PCT five of 328 doctors were vaccinated (1.5%). Other trusts with low proportions of doctors being vaccinated were Eastern and Coastal Kent PCT (2.1%), Northumberland care trust (2.3%), Lincolnshire Teaching PCT and Brent Teaching PCT (both 3.3%), Newcastle PCT (4.9%), and Manchester health and social care (4.9%).

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http://www.news-medical.net/news/20110926/Britaine28099s-health-workers-urged-to-get-flu-shots-to-protect-patients.aspx