No flu vaccine!

[Toony Oony]

Mum is in a Care Home of about 60 residents. One floor residential, one dementia and one mixed. It is a private CH and they have a contract with a local GP surgery, who do a couple of 'morning rounds' each week.

My mother is frail and so this year I decided to have the flu vaccine for the first time, as I visit the CH frequently, and do not wish Mum or any of her 'neighbours' to become ill because of me. I had the vaccination at my GP's late September and since then, I have asked from time to time at the CH when the residents would receive theirs, and was told very soon. I know some residents have already received it, and today I asked again, only to be told that the surgery has run out of vaccine. Nobody seems to know how this happened, or how long it will be before new supplies are available - 2/3 weeks at the very earliest. So best case scenario is mid November before over 30 vulnerable elderly persons living in a communal environment, with regular visits from primary schools and other guests can be vaccinated and protected.

There is no excuse for the Practice to get this so wrong - it should be a calculation based on registered patients over 65 and last year's take up rate ... and for the CH it should be a given. I am on the warpath!

*Apologies for vent. Less than good visit today in all respects, both Mum and CH. A glass or two of vino and all will be well*

 

[karaokePete]

It’s the same in our region. Our surgery told us they had been rationed so were only giving it to over 75s at the moment.

Apparently it’s got something to do with the supply, rather than the demand.

 

[Toony Oony]

Hi @karaokePete - I get it, but just despair how broken everything is.
I will restrain myself from having a *soap box moment*
Rationing to the oldest has some weird logic, but not much IMHO.
Doesn't work for our situation though - Mum is almost 90 and 95% of other residents are 80+.

 

[KathrynAnne]

The same happened at our GP’s too. Fortunately I was able to take my Mum to a local chemist which hadn’t run out!

 

[Beate]

It's not the surgery's fault. It was in the news that there is a shortage of the super trivalent vaccine that is given to the elderly. The quadrivalent everyone else has is in plentiful supply though.

 

[AliceA]

We found the same, our first appointment was cancelled. supplies mid November. I checked with another chemist they had a few in and I managed to get two appointments. Altogether I made at least five phone calls.
We use a chemist as it is easier to get too than GP. Surgery did not have any though.

 

[Toony Oony]

Sorry, but I do not consider Mum's GP practice completely blameless, when other surgeries have planned ahead (mine for example) and are not experiencing problems.
. 'according to NHS England some practices and community pharmacies did not meet the deadline for ordering, and in some places demand has exceeded supply'.

The whole situation is a farce and I think there are worrying faults at many levels. However, a bit of forward planning by some GP surgeries could have helped dramatically by prioritising the most vulnerable patients in the first delivery batch.

In government guidance issued earlier this year:
'General Practices are responsible for ordering sufficient inactivated influenza vaccine for all eligible patients aged 18 years and over directly from the manufacturer .........aTIV will be delivered to providers using a phased delivery system with orders expected to be delivered in a 40:20:40 ratio (Sept/Oct/Nov). Manufacturers will inform providers of their confirmed delivery allocation and dates in August 2018 .... If limited aTIV stock is available (for example at the beginning of the flu vaccination season), those aged 75 years and over and those aged 65-74 years with an underlying clinical risk factor should be prioritised for vaccination. Once these groups have been covered, all other 65-74 year olds should then be targeted as further deliveries of aTIV vaccine are made. Practices could use the profile of their population aged 65 years and over to inform the phasing of invitations; matching specific practice populations against aTIV deliveries to the practice as set out in the table below ...'

Still cross, but rant over - I will say no more here

 

[AliceA]

it is easy to write guidelines but still need the supplies and the manufacturer could not supply.
The governments of all colours give out plans, we booked well ahead but no vaccine of the right type was available. It is a crazy world.

I have to carry an epipen, well two, these are unavailable so we have been told to use out of date ones as better than nothing!

 

[Salsalegs]

Mum is in a Care Home of about 60 residents. One floor residential, one dementia and one mixed. It is a private CH and they have a contract with a local GP surgery, who do a couple of 'morning rounds' each week.

My mother is frail and so this year I decided to have the flu vaccine for the first time, as I visit the CH frequently, and do not wish Mum or any of her 'neighbours' to become ill because of me. I had the vaccination at my GP's late September and since then, I have asked from time to time at the CH when the residents would receive theirs, and was told very soon. I know some residents have already received it, and today I asked again, only to be told that the surgery has run out of vaccine. Nobody seems to know how this happened, or how long it will be before new supplies are available - 2/3 weeks at the very earliest. So best case scenario is mid November before over 30 vulnerable elderly persons living in a communal environment, with regular visits from primary schools and other guests can be vaccinated and protected.

There is no excuse for the Practice to get this so wrong - it should be a calculation based on registered patients over 65 and last year's take up rate ... and for the CH it should be a given. I am on the warpath!

*Apologies for vent. Less than good visit today in all respects, both Mum and CH. A glass or two of vino and all will be well*

I’ve found that the small independent chemists still have stock...

 

[Baz22]

Took my Dad down for his flu jab at GP; no problems. Keep asking about Mum's flu jab, same GP but in a care home but no satisfactory answer. Problem with GP not Care Home. They told me it was December last year before GP Practice got round to giving residents flu jab. Once again elderly with dementia put at back of queue.

 

[nitram]

"NHS England has encouraged GP practices and pharmacies to 'shift around' flu vaccine stock as distribution issues spread to both types of vaccine.....
.....Although the BMA has advised that practices can administer QIV to over-65s as a last resort, if the vaccine is unlikely to become available in their area, NHS England has said payment will be subject to checks whether this was genuinely the case.....
......GPC member and Doncaster LMC medical secretary Dr Dean Eggitt said: ‘I will be very surprised if pharmacies will want to share the stock with us. We are competitors in this. GP practices want to vaccinate as many patients as possible, and so do pharmacies. Pharmacies get paid to do this so there is very little advantage to the pharmacies in giving us their stock.....
.....Dr Coleman’s practice is currently negotiating with a pharmacy to try and obtain stock, but he said if this does not happen the practice could face an £8,000 loss through dispensing fees, which he said would be ‘frustrating in these financially challenging times’."

http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/clinica...id-flu-vaccine-supply-issues/20037496.article

Pharmacists get paid £9.48 a vaccination.

https://psnc.org.uk/our-news/flu-va...-psnc-negotiates-fee-uplift-and-improvements/

 

[Toony Oony]

@nitram - I have read this too. All fighting for the fee to jab somebody with scant regard for the poor patient who just wants protect himself from flu.

GP Practices are businesses as are Pharmacies. At the end of the day, the bottom line is that they are there to make a profit. I don't mind that, as long as they are efficient and provide a good service to the end user. (And this is from someone who worked for years at the BMA and has many friends who are GP's, both in practice and retired )

FLU GATE and the fight for fees seems to be developing at a rapid rate. The BMJ reports:

'GPs are being warned not to let their push to deliver flu vaccinations this winter spill into “bad behaviour,” after a practice was reported to commissioners for threatening to withhold repeat prescriptions unless patients chose to be vaccinated there'.

Oh dearie me ...

 

[Rey61]

At 57 with asthma, I received my flu jab on Saturday. My 87 year old MIL with Alzheimer's is a patient at a different surgery and the district nurse is supposed to call and give her hers. I rang the surgery yesterday...out of supplies for her age group...scrap heap at 87?

 

[nellbelles]

At 57 with asthma, I received my flu jab on Saturday. My 87 year old MIL with Alzheimer's is a patient at a different surgery and the district nurse is supposed to call and give her hers. I rang the surgery yesterday...out of supplies for her age group...scrap heap at 87?

There a separate issue with age this year, the vaccine is a different strain for the under 65’s and the over 65’s after the over 65’s got very little protection last year from the vaccination

 

[stanleypj]

When I had my jab, the people queing to receive the jabs were clearly of mixed ages. We were not asked our ages. All received the same type of jab.

 

[Beate]

You should have been, stanleypj, as there are clearly two different vaccines this year.

 

[Sirena]

As Beate says, they should have. I'm asthmatic and when I had my jab this year the nurse checked my age on the screen and I got the jab for under 65s.

 

[stanleypj]

Many thanks both. Not sure there's much I can do about it now.

 

[nitram]

...GP practices can administer the quadrivalent (QIV) flu vaccine to patients over 65 as a 'last resort' and still be reimbursed in the usual way, the BMA has said.

But the new guidance said practices should, in the first instance, advise patients to return for their vaccination when the aTIV vaccine is in stock or signpost them to another provider such as pharmacies.....

....Practices which choose to administer the QIV vaccine to over-65s must first gain patient consent, and those found to have given the QIV vaccine 'inappropriately' face having their funding reclaimed....

http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/clinica...unable-to-source-new-flu-jab/20037469.article

 

[stanleypj]

Many thanks nitram.
I can't think that it would be wise to have another different flu jab.