England’s autumn covid and influenza vaccination campaigns for adults will start in October this year, to “maximise and extend protection during the winter,” NHS England has said.1
In its communication to NHS trusts, primary care providers, and pharmacies, NHS England said that the timing would ensure that vulnerable people were protected “through the period of greatest risk in December 2023 and early January 2024.” In previous years vaccination had started at the beginning of September.
It said that vaccination of care home residents and staff should start on 2 October, while that for other eligible flu and covid groups should begin on 7 October. All vaccinations should be completed by 15 December 2023, it added. Flu vaccination for eligible children will still be offered from 1 September.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has said that protection was “highest in the first three months” after a jab and that it was important that the autumn vaccination campaign be completed by early December 2023 to “optimise protection over the winter months.”2
GPs upset
The move to delay the expected start date for vaccination of adults has caused upset among GPs. Just hours before NHS England’s announcement the BMA’s General Practitioners Committee wrote to the Department of Health and Social Care urging the health minister Maria Caulfield to intervene.
“We believe that making such a change will significantly impact patient uptake but will also impact GPs’ ability to deliver this vital public health programme,” said the letter from the newly elected GPC England chair, Katie Bramall-Stainer.
She argued that general practices plan the vaccination programmes “at least six months in advance” and many will have already booked patients in and arranged staffing. “Making this kind of change, and without any consultation with the profession, will have a direct knock-on effect for patients and wider public health,” Bramall-Stainer said.
This issue was somewhat acknowledged by NHS England in its communication. It said that although it did not normally provide practices with vaccination payments until the official start date it understood that “some firm commitments and appointments have already been made” and so it would allow payment claims to be submitted where these patients still wished to receive their flu vaccination in September.
This was the second time NHS England had caused upset among GPs in relation to this year’s vaccination programmes, as earlier this week it announced that the payment that practices would receive for administering covid vaccines would be reduced by a quarter, from £10.06 to £7.54 per vaccination per patient, from September.3
All over 50s vaccination group scrapped
The autumn covid vaccine programme will see UK adults aged 65 and over and clinically vulnerable people aged 6 months to 64 years offered a booster dose.
In separate announcements England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland outlined their plans for rolling out vaccinations from next month. Unlike in previous years,4 the vaccine will not be offered to people aged 50-64 who are not classed as clinically vulnerable.
In Scotland and Northern Ireland the flu vaccine will still be offered to everyone over 50, while in England and Wales it will be offered to everyone aged 65 and over.5678
In line with JCVI advice, the covid booster will also be offered to care home residents and staff, frontline health and social care workers, people aged 12-64 years who are household contacts of people with immunosuppression, and people aged over 16 who care for elderly adults.
Commenting on the selection of groups, JCVI’s chair of covid-19 immunisation, Wei Shen Lim, said, “The autumn booster programme will continue to focus on those at greatest risk of getting seriously ill. These persons will benefit the most from a booster vaccination.”
In many areas administering flu and covid vaccines during the same appointment is being encouraged, where appropriate.
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