Almost three-quarters of front-line health care workers in England received the seasonal influenza flu vaccine during the 2019-2020 vaccination campaign, according to the latest Public Health England (PHE) data.
The report shows that 98.7 per cent of the 237 NHS organisations (acute Trusts, ambulance Trusts, mental health Trusts, foundation Trusts, primary care and independent sector health care providers [ISHCP]) returned data for the final survey on cumulative influenza vaccines administered from 1 September 2019 to 29 February 2020.
Data were collected by staff groupings (doctors, qualified nurses, other professionally qualified clinical staff and clinical support staff) from each Trust and aggregated by Trust, local NHS England team, region and nationally.
The 2019-2020 season saw 74.3 per cent of all front-line health care workers (from all organisations) with direct patient care reported to have received the 2019-2020 seasonal influenza vaccine in England.
This is an increase in uptake compared with 70.3 per cent of all front-line health care workers who received the seasonal influenza vaccine in the 2018-2019 season. Seasonal influenza vaccine uptake (from all Trusts) aggregated by local NHS England team ranged from 70.6 per cent to 85.7 per cent.
The highest seasonal influenza vaccine uptake for 2019-2020 by an NHS Trust was 94.8 per cent, whereas 60.1 per cent of all Trusts (excluding local NHS England teams; 134/223) achieved vaccine uptake rates of 75 per cent or more.
Seasonal influenza vaccine uptake (from GP practices and ISHCPs) aggregated by local NHS England team ranged from 47.2 per cent to 71.8 per cent with no local NHS England teams reporting uptake of 75 per cent or greater.
The highest seasonal influenza vaccine uptake by staff group was achieved among support to clinical staff across England with an uptake rate of 77.2 per cent. The lowest uptake was 59.4 per cent in support to GP staff.
