Flu Campaign 2020/21 – As a business, we need your support please
You may have heard the news about this year’s flu vaccine campaign. This year will be a tough year for practices delivering flu vaccines.
Why?
🔸We are still geared up for another Covid-19 rise.
🔹We will be doing vaccinations in PPE meaning changes between patients and cleans of the environment between patients.
🔸All that PPE has to be ordered, stored, shared out, restocked, disposed of.
🔹We need to maintain social distancing between patients, so no more crowded waiting rooms with a catch up from others in your community.
🔸Social distancing means we have to make innovative use of our building, with one way in, one way out.
🔹We already ordered in December 2019 the two types of vaccines required for our usual cohorts of patients within risk groups, therefore want to deliver your vaccine otherwise it may be wasted. The additional group of people means lots more vaccines needed: practices order the vaccine a year ahead, so we now need to rely on NHSE / Public Health England to supply additional stock as we have been informed they aren’t available by our suppliers.
🔸Everything takes longer: PPE, cleaning, social distancing. So a clinic for 100 people which used to be done in a couple of hours could now take 6 hours.
🔹The staff that deliver the vaccines, and the administrators who support them in the clinics are already working flat out during the week, and now face the prospect of working additional shifts to get these vaccinations done in a timely manner.
🔸It’s unlikely we will be able to run open clinics this year where patients can just turn up, so we need to set up some kind of appointment system.
🔹The number of Housebound patients has increased with some patients still needing to shield, and home visits for them take much longer and are much more risky for the staff.
🔸Many practices, including us, are running on reduced work force as they have shielding staff, or staff who cannot see patients face to face due to their own risks.
Thank you for reading this far. You may ask what is the point of this post? The main point is we found out this information the same time as you did, and although we have lots of ideas, there is still lots we need to work out, so please don’t ask to book in for a flu jab yet!
We WILL let you know by text, Facebook, website or other what the plan is. We don’t receive them until September anyway. It WILL be very different this year.
We WILL do our best as we always do. As a business we need your support more than ever, and are extremely grateful for it.
Thank you.