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Double the flu clinics… Is it wishful thinking? – Paula the PM

Having scoured the gov.uk website, so far I can’t see anything about planned changes to the flu vaccination campaign this year. That said, I did find this document which provides some clues about the way things might develop.

I’ve deliberated before over what the flu season might look like this year. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t manage to secure any additional flu vaccine, so I have the amount I originally ordered, and that seems like a lifetime ago.

I’ve been looking at the RCGP document which landed a couple of days ago; there are references to the way that flu vaccines are typically delivered via GPs, pharmacies and school nurses. Perhaps someone somewhere has realised that there’d be a real uphill battle to provide an extended cohort flu-vaccination programme via GPs only.

One thing that did concern me was the estimated length of time they give per vaccination. It doesn’t come as a surprise that the RCGP think it’ll take longer to vaccinate each patient, but the sums are a bit worrying; if we needed to increase the appointment time from two minutes to ten minutes, that’s a five-fold increase. We run our clinics on Saturday mornings in the surgery. We do three Saturdays, and we’re all done and dusted by 2.00 pm each time. We’ll need more capacity than we’ve currently got if we’re potentially going to be vaccinating all the over-50s as suggested. I can’t see my staff being thrilled at the prospect of 15 flu clinics on Saturdays instead of the usual three, even if overtime is paid and it’s coming up to Christmas.

The other intriguing thing I noticed is the frequent mentions of the COVID-19 vaccine. It’s left me wondering just how far along the road a vaccine solution might be, if they’re mentioning the possibility of dual vaccinations at flu clinics. Don’t get me wrong, I’m hoping that we’re in a position to do a dual vaccination of all the over-50s and vulnerable patients. It’s just that I’d generally be mid-planning my campaign by now, and while this document goes some way towards plugging the inevitable gaps, there are still several questions left unanswered. Not least of which would be, with a novel vaccine, will we be able to administer it at the same time as flu, shingles and pneumo? I’m not sure they’re going to be happy with that en masse. If we can’t do flu and COVID vaccines together, we might have two major campaigns to run in the space of a few months, and with the looming possibility of 15 Saturdays just to cover flu, the thought of 30 positively chills me to the core.

There are many beneficial pointers, and I’m glad of that. Inevitably, I’d end up not thinking of something and realising too far down the line. They’ve even covered drive-in clinics, so that gives me some hope. There are references to large buildings also, so I’m thinking perhaps it’s time to see whether the local sports village can offer space and parking – in which case, I can let the CQC know I’m moving location for flu. I wonder if the whole PCN could use it? It’s certainly big enough.

I’ve been watching this thread because I’m hoping that another PM will have a magic answer to my flu clinic issues. After all, no matter how hard I think about it, I don’t appear to have come up with a solution. A little bird tells me that a policy from Practice Index is on its way to rescue the day .

Given the amount of traffic on this one, and the release of the RCGP guidance, I think perhaps more government direction is imminent – being cynical, probably late on Friday afternoon!

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Paula the PM

Local Practice Manager

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One Response to “Double the flu clinics… Is it wishful thinking? – Paula the PM”
  1. Judith Hutchings Says:

    We’ve been told that flu and Covid vacs need to be given 28 days apart and that potentially the Covid Vac could be a 2 injection dosage. Priority will be given to the Covid Vac if its ready before the flu vac. Either way, logistical nightmare. Imagine the impact of all those pairs of gloves and pinnies on the environment and lets wonder who is picking up the tab for the extra supplies.

    Reply

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