The Broadway Surgery (Twydall), first to reach seasonal flu targets in Medway

NHS Kent and Medway would like to congratulate Dr M G Patel and his practice team for being the first practice in Medway to reach the 2011/12 targets for the patient seasonal flu immunisation programme.

Data from ImmForm shows that as of the end of Nov 2011 the practice had achieved:

• 85.5% in the 65 and over category

• 68.6% in the clinical risk category (6 months to under 65)
  86.7% in pregnant women 

• Uptake rates now may be even higher.

The latest (week 50) figures for flu vaccination uptake in NHS Medway are:

• 73.9% in the 65 and over category

• 51.1% in the clinical risk category (6 months to under 65)

• 32.2% in pregnant women  
   

We would like to take this opportunity to encourage practices to continue their efforts to vaccinate those patients and carers eligible for flu vaccination and to consider the following:

• Infants who did not show up on your initial database search in the autumn may now be 6 months old and able to be vaccinated

• The uptake rate in those aged 6 months to 2 years is particularly low in Medway – 17.4%

• The uptake in pregnant women is low at 32.2%

• Newly pregnant women need to be offered vaccination – act speedily on maternity notifications received from midwives.

The table below illustrates the importance of vaccination of those in clinical risk groups.  It sets out the relative risk of death from flu last winter for individuals in the various clinical risk groups compared with those not in a clinical risk group. The message is clear - increasing flu vaccination uptake in individuals in the clinical risk groups is important in reducing serious illness and death in these groups.