Thousands of English patients with long-term health conditions could be risking their health by shunning the seasonal flu jab, GPs have warned.
Surgery fridges are full of unused vaccines, some family doctors have claimed, after more than 6% less patients turned up for the treatment compared with the same period last year.
The Royal College of General Practitioners released the figures with a warning that patients in at risk groups – such as the elderly, pregnant women and people with heart disease and respiratory problems – could suffer severe complications from the virus.
Surgeries in England are vaccinating more than 100 fewer patients per practice than this time last year, the RCGP figures show. However, Maureen Baker, chair of the RCGP, said some people could be getting their jabs from pharmacists instead.
“The problem is that we don’t really know,” Baker told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday.“It may be that there is a loss of confidence in the effectiveness of the flu vaccine, again we don’t know. And the worrying thing is we don’t know whether people are getting the vaccines elsewhere or whether they are not getting them at all.”
People eligible for the vaccination free on the NHS are targeted specifically by their GP surgeries, which order supplies based on the information they have on patients on their practice lists. However, patients can also get the flu jab from pharmacists and sometimes through their work.
Prof Simon de Lusignan, director of the RCGP research and surveillance centre, who also works as a GP in Guildford, Surrey, said: “In my practice, we appear to be giving fewer vaccines and have now slowed the ordering of vaccines because our fridges are full. The college’s ‘surveillance’ practices are seeing similar results. We took a snapshot of 101 practices and overall they reported an average (median) reduction of 106 fewer vaccines compared with the same period last year.
“The reasons for this are unclear but it is possible that perceptions of lower vaccine effectiveness last year may have influenced people. However, the overall effectiveness of the vaccine last year was reasonable and patients are much better protected by having it. One of the reasons that we no longer experience the major flu outbreaks that we had during the 1960s and 1970s could be due to the flu vaccination policy so successfully delivered from general practice.”
Baker, who is also an emergency planning expert at the RCGP, said the drop in numbers coming forward for the vaccine was alarming. “We are experiencing an incredibly mild November this year but we don’t need cold weather for a flu outbreak and influenza is a horrible illness that can also an trigger a host of other health problems,” she said.
“We urge patients not to shun the reminders they receive from the GP surgery and to have their vaccination as a priority. It provides valuable protection and plays a key role in keeping vulnerable people as healthy as possible through the winter. The drop in the number of vaccinations that we are seeing this year can only increase the risks for the frail, elderly and others more susceptible to flu, as well as potentially increasing winter pressures on the NHS.”
Dr George Kassianos, immunisation lead for the RCGP, said: “Flu vaccines only work if patients come forward and are vaccinated.”
