Agenda item

Purpose: to inform the Board of the flu vaccination work that has taken place and seek suggestions to improve vaccination uptake in West Berkshire.

Lesley Wyman introduced her report, which updated the Board on the flu vaccination work that had taken place and asked for suggestions on how to improve vaccination uptake in West Berkshire.

The flu plan for 2013/14 was published by the Department of Health in June 2013. One of the strategic objectives of the flu plan was to offer the flu vaccination to 100% of all those in the eligible groups. The target was to vaccinate at least 75% of those 65 and over; 75% of pregnant woman and 75% of those in a clinical risk group. In addition to this the Department of Health had brought in flu vaccinations for all two and three year old children. It was anticipated that this would be rolled out to all children in the future.

In addition to the targets stated above, the Department of Health had adopted a free voucher scheme for staff to ensure those at risk were able to receive the flu vaccination. Local Authorities would have to offer a voucher to all front facing staff. Head of Services had been tasked with providing names of those staff that would be applicable for vouchers. West Berkshire Council had 600 vouchers in total to give out however, only 300 members of staff had been designated them so far. Individuals had to formally agree and sign to receive the vaccination. Those who had received the vaccination would then be monitored for six months to see if the programme was worth while. The aim currently was to increase uptake of the voucher scheme. Emails had gone out to increase awareness from the Portfolio Member for Health and Wellbeing, Councillor Marcus Franks.

Staff at special schools were also being offered the vouchers, along with parents/carers of children at these schools. This was to help ensure all the vouchers were used. The scheme was very straight forward, once receiving a voucher, a person’s details would be placed on the national website and the vaccination would be administered by a local pharmacy. Lesley Wyman confirmed that there were 18 participating pharmacies in the District.

It was stated that the rate of those contracting flu in West Berkshire was no different to that nationally. According to data provided by the CCG, the rate of uptake for the week ending 10^th November 2013 was very positive. Lesley Wyman reported that the voucher scheme came to an end on 1^st January 2014.

In order to increase the uptake of the flu vaccination letters had been sent out, press releases issued and social networking sites such as Twitter had been utilised.

Rachael Wardell referred to the table on page 12 of the agenda and commented that the comparison between Newbury and District and North and West Reading CCGs was very helpful. It was noted that the CCGs in some areas performed better than others and therefore Rachael Wardell stated that she would be interested to see the mechanism used by each CCG for increasing uptake. Rod Smith confirmed that both CCGs were amongst the highest performing in South Central England and stressed how demanding the national targets were. Lise Llewellyn explained that there was much inter practice variation and that individual practices would focus on targeting different groups of people from week to week, making weekly comparisons difficult.

Lise Llewellyn confirmed that pharmacies had become involved, simply to improve uptake. Councillor Graham Pask asked where the figures were collected from and it was confirmed by Lise Llewellyn that Public Health England collected the figures from weekly returns.

Councillor Marcus Franks queried whether the 18 participating pharmacies were equally spread throughout the district. Rod Smith confirmed that areas had been chosen where the uptake was lower. Only Council staff needed a voucher to claim their flu vaccination. Others had to be able to prove they were in one of the at risk groups.

Dr Bal Bahia explained that persuading people to have the vaccination in the midst of what else they had come in to a surgery to be treated for was difficult. There had also been rumours of people feeling unwell after the vaccination, which had hindered uptake.

Councillor Marcus Franks suggested that next season there might be a case for all practices to carry out the same initiatives as those practices which were high achieving, in order to increase uptake. Rod Smith highlighted that the work was also linked to deprivation.

Lesley Wyman reported that carers who were able to receive the vaccination would be identified via the carers register. The theory behind offering the vaccination to carers was that the person who they were caring for would suffer greatly if the carer became ill with flu. Carers not on the register would also be able to receive the vaccination and this would be up to the discretion of a GP Practice.

Lesley Wyman reported that there were no targets for staff uptake of the vaccination. The focus would be on key staff such as hospital staff, care home staff and front facing staff across the Council. Those who received the vaccination would then be monitored to see if illness occurred. Councillor Gordon Lundie suggested that he would raise the voucher scheme at Management Board that afternoon to help increase awareness at management level.

Councillor Lundie referred to the table under paragraph five and queried what ‘good’ looked like in comparison to other areas in England. Councillor Lundie asked where Officers expected to be in December with vaccination rates and where they wanted to be by the end of the programme.

RESOLVED that targets would be placed in the table by Lise Llewellyn/Lesley Wyman.

It was confirmed that Newbury Weekly News had been utilised to raise awareness. Dr Bal Bahia reported that many practices had initiated the programme at the beginning of October 2013.