More than 11 million people in England will be offered it first.
NHS Hospitals will begin vaccinating frontline healthcare workers and their patients who fall into at risk categories against swine flu from today (Wednesday). The vaccination programme will be rolled out over the next few weeks with GP surgeries receiving deliveries from Monday (26 October).
Around two million frontline health and social care workers will be offered the vaccine. This group is at increased risk of infection and of transmitting that infection to susceptible patients. Protecting these people will help the NHS workforce to remain resilient and able to treat sick patients.
The following at risk groups will be prioritised in the following order (numbers given are approximate and are for England only):
1. People aged over six months and under 65 years in current seasonal flu vaccine clinical at risk groups (about 5 million people)
2. All pregnant women (about 0.5 million people)
3. Household contacts of people with compromised immune systems e.g. people in regular close contact with patients on treatment for cancer (about 0.5 million people)
4. People aged 65 and over in the current seasonal flu vaccine clinical at risk groups (about 3.5 million people). This does not include otherwise healthy over 65s, since they appear to have some natural immunity to the virus.
Patients will be contacted by their GPs if they fall into one of the at risk categories.
The GSK vaccine (Pandemrix) will be offered to the vast majority of people. It has been licensed and approved by the European regulators. Most people will need only one dose of this vaccine for protection.
The Health Secretary, Andy Burnham, said: ‘Our best line of defence against swine flu is the vaccine. I’m very pleased to say that the UK is one of the first countries in the world to start vaccinating against this virus.
‘The independent committee of experts in the UK has recommended that all those in the at risk groups should be offered the swine flu vaccine. It is also being offered to frontline health and social care workers to protect them and their patients and ensure the NHS is staffed should it come under pressure this winter.’
Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer said: ‘This is the first pandemic for which we have had vaccine to protect people. I urge everyone in the priority groups to have the vaccine – it will help prevent people in clinical risk groups from getting swine flu and the complications that may arise from it.
‘It’s important for frontline health and social care workers to have the vaccine. It will help prevent them and their families getting the virus from patients, it will stop them passing the virus onto their patients, it will potentially protect them from mutated strains and it will reduce the disruption to NHS services caused by people being absent due to illness.’
