Solely 4 in 10 frontline NHS workers has rolled up their sleeves for the flu vaccine, the bottom uptake in a decade, MailOnline can reveal.
Regardless of begging susceptible Britons to get the jab amid predictions of a dire winter the NHS itself has didn’t persuade most of its workers to do the identical.
Frontline medics like medical doctors and nurses are supplied the flu jab at no cost yearly to assist cease them inadvertently spreading the virus to any susceptible individuals they encounter at work, just like the aged or most cancers sufferers.
It comes as hospitals face what has been dubbed a ‘flu-nami’ with the infectious virus hospitalising practically 60 occasions extra individuals this yr than final winter.
A MailOnline evaluation reveals solely about 4 in 10 frontline NHS workers have gotten the flu jab because the well being service is battered by rising influenza admissions. The result’s lowest uptake the well being service has seen by the tip of November since 2012
NHS England knowledge present a mean of 1,939 individuals with flu had been in hospital every day final week. It was up 67 per cent on the 1,162 recorded the earlier week and 57 occasions greater than the 34 recorded on the identical level in 2021
The decrease than standard flu jab uptake amongst frontline NHS workers was revealed by a MailOnline evaluation of a decade’s price of Authorities knowledge.
Collected by the UK Well being Safety Company, it reveals solely 41.8 per cent of all frontline workers within the NHS in England obtained the free flu jab by November 30, the most recent knowledge out there.
That is the bottom annual determine for vaccine uptake amongst workers since 2012, when solely 40.8 per cent of workers obtained the jab.
It additionally represents a pointy decline from 2020, when seven out of 10 workers (71 per cent) opted to get vaccinated in opposition to the flu.
Damaged down by workers group, solely 41.8 per cent of NHS frontline medical doctors and 44.4 per cent of the well being service’s frontline nurses obtained the flu jab.
It comes because the UK faces a surge of influenza instances that’s piling additional strain on a well being service already besieged by rising winter calls for, Strep A, and workers strikes.
The newest admissions knowledge for England reveals a mean of 1,939 individuals with flu had been in hospital every day within the week ending December 18.
That is up 67 per cent on the 1,162 recorded the earlier week and a whopping 57 occasions greater than the 32 recorded on the identical level in 2021.
Though nonetheless decrease than Covid, the flu determine was additionally a pointy improve on the day by day common of 480 on the finish of November.
Professor Paul Hunter, a public well being professional on the College of East Anglia, instructed MailOnline that flu vaccine uptake in frontline well being staff was essential for not just for their well being, however for the general public’s, and the broader NHS.
He stated: ‘One of many greatest issues throughout a nasty flu yr is well being care workers going off sick with the flu and so staffing ranges grow to be unable to deal with demand on the NHS.
‘The extra well being care staff [that] catch flu, the extra doubtless it’s that susceptible sufferers grow to be contaminated and so add to the strain on well being companies due to delayed discharges or want for respiratory beds.’
He added that the NHS had usually at all times struggled to encourage most frontline workers to decide in for the flu jab.
However Professor Hunter speculated one other issue dragging down this yr’s effort could possibly be vaccine fatigue from the quite a few Covid pictures NHS workers had been inspired, and in some instances threatened, to have.
‘I believe a few of the low uptake is right down to vaccine fatigue,’ he stated.
The graph reveals the weekly hospitalisation charges for flu (mild blue line) and Covid (darkish blue line) per 100,000 individuals in England, based mostly on optimistic checks
The graph reveals the weekly hospital admission fee by age for influenza. Admissions are highest among the many over-85s
‘Perhaps individuals really feel that simply having the Covid vaccine can be sufficient or possibly the messaging over Covid and flu vaccines are interfering with one another.’
One other potential subject was individuals forgetting how dangerous flu could possibly be attributable to it being blunted over the earlier two years, he stated.
Influenza largely disappeared through the first two winters after Covid hit as restrictions and adjustments in socialisation habits saved instances low.
Professor Hunter stated flu admissions knowledge underplays the potential seriousness of the state of affairs as they underestimate the true affect of the virus on well being.
He stated: ‘Most extreme illness and deaths after flu usually are not immediately brought on by the influenza virus and will not even be identified as being attributable to flu as a result of by the point somebody leads to hospital a laboratory analysis turns into inconceivable.
‘As a substitute, they’re attributable to secondary bacterial infections as a result of the flu virus damages the liner of the higher airways permitting these bacterial infections to take a maintain.’
Professor Hunter stated this harm brought on by the flu weakening the physique is what’s driving a the rise in Strep A infections which have killed greater than two dozen British kids to date.
An NHS England spokesperson stated they’re persevering with efforts to attempt to persuade workers to get the flu vaccine, and thanked those who had opted in.
‘Flu has a severe affect on the well being of hundreds of individuals yearly, and the NHS wants as a lot of its workers as attainable to be combating match over the approaching months, so we proceed to advertise vaccination uptake throughout healthcare staff,’ they stated.
One measure to spice up uptake has been issuing reminders to frontline workers to get the jab comparable to printing messages on their pay slips.
The spokesperson added there was no scarcity of flu jabs for NHS workers.
Underneath well being service guidelines each NHS employer wants to supply 100 per cent of its frontline workers a free flu vaccine yearly.
Making the flu vaccine necessary for NHS workers as situation of their employment was as soon as touted by former Well being Secretary Matt Hancock.
Nonetheless, his successors haven’t made any such dedication following an Eleventh-hour U-turn by Sajid Javid, who changed Mr Hancock, over the same scheme for necessary Covid jabs for NHS workers.
The reversal adopted warnings that making Covid jabs obligatory for NHS employment would result in crippling workers shortages, with as much as 80,000 staff dealing with the sack.
