Book Your Flu Vaccination Appointment – Flu Season 2024

Flu vaccination appointments are available to book for eligible patients. Please see below a list of flu clinic dates and times.

You can book your flu vaccination appointment using our Flu Vaccination Request form.

Alternatively you can contact our reception team who will be happy assist you.

Further information on flu vaccinations is available from the NHS:

• www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/flu-influenza-vaccine.

Flu Clinic Dates & Times

Dates for 2024 will be released later in the year.

Child Flu clinics – We have dedicated clinics for child flu (2-3 year-olds), please contact the surgery to make an appointment.

Please note the following when you attend for your appointment:

• All flu clinics are by appointment only
• You must wear a face covering
• Please wear a short sleeved t-shirt or blouse to allow easy access to the top of your arm
• Please arrive on time, not early or late (there will be strict adherence to timings to help with social distancing)
• Patients will be called separately for their appointment, if you need a carer to accompany you please inform reception when making the appointment.
• If you are attending on foot you will be asked to wait outside
• Most importantly if you feel unwell or if a household member has tested positive with COVID in the last 10 days then you must NOT attend the surgery

The Flu vaccine is available on the NHS (for people from six months of age) if:

• You have a heart problem
• You have a chest complaint or breathing difficulties, including asthma that needs regular steroid inhalers or tablets
• You have kidney disease
• You have lowered immunity due to disease or treatment (such as steroid or cancer treatment) or are in close contact with or live in the same house as someone in this group
• You have liver disease
• You have diabetes
• You have had a stroke (or mini stroke)
• You have a learning disability
• You have a neurological condition, such as multiple sclerosis (MS), cerebral palsy or post-polio syndrome
• You have a problem with your spleen, such as sickle cell disease, or have had your spleen removed
• You are an adult with a higher body weight (a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or more)

It is also recommended and available on the NHS if:

• You are pregnant
• You are aged 65 or over
• You live in a residential or nursing home
• You are a carer
• You are a community first responder
• You are a member of a recognised voluntary organisation and provide planned first aid
• Children aged 2 and 3 years on 31 August 2021 (this is, born between 1 September 2017 and 31 August 2019) – We will contact patients when child flu clinics are available

Health & social care workers can get their vaccine from a local pharmacy.

Primary school children will get their vaccination in school.

Flu Campaign

You need a ‘flu jab’ if you:

• Are aged 65 years and over
• Live in long-term residential or nursing homes
• Have chronic heart or chest complaints including asthma or COPD
• Have chronic kidney or liver disease
• Have a chronic neurological condition
• Have diabetes
• Have lowered immunity due to disease or treatment, for example, steroid medication or cancer treatment
• Are pregnant

Health workers and carers are also offered the ‘flu jab’.

The ‘flu jab’ is offered to those considered to be more at risk should they get flu. If you fall into one of the groups mentioned above, help to control flu by having a ‘flu jab’.

The flu virus is easily passed from person to person. Most people recover from the flu but complications can occur, particularly in the elderly and in people with certain medical conditions which can result in serious illness and may be life-threatening.

Flu Vaccine for Children

An annual nasal spray flu vaccine is being offered to children in certain age groups. Over time, as the programme rolls out, potentially all children between the ages of two and 16 could be vaccinated against flu each year with the nasal spray.

The vaccine is given as a nasal spray squirted up each nostril and works even better than the injected vaccine in children. It’s quick and painless and will mean your child is less likely to become ill if they come into contact with the flu virus.

The new nasal spray flu vaccine will not only help to protect your child from getting flu, it will also stop the disease spreading from them to their family, carers and the wider population.

Children with long-term health conditions are at extra risk from flu and it’s especially important that they are vaccinated against flu each year. Children at risk of flu are already offered an annual flu injection. As the nasal spray is more effective than the injected vaccine, children aged between two and 18 with long-term health conditions will be offered the annual flu nasal spray instead of the injection.

The nasal spray flu vaccine has very few side effects, the main one being that vaccinated children may have a runny nose for a short time.

Shingles Campaign

In September 2013, a national immunisation programme was introduced by the Department of Health for people in certain age groups to help protect those most at risk from Shingles. Shingles is a condition that is caused by the reactivation of the chickenpox virus. Once you have had chickenpox, the virus stays dormant (inactive) in your nervous system and later in life can reactivate and cause Shingles.

Check if you are eligible for the Shingles vaccination by viewing the poster below:

• All Year Round Shingles Vaccination – Eligibility poster

If you are eligible for a Shingles vaccination this year, please contact the surgery to make an appointment by visiting our appointment room.