Annual flu letter for 2022/23 published
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Further to our news story on 2nd March 2022, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), the UK Health Security Agency and NHS England and NHS Improvement have jointly published the annual flu vaccination programme letter today (22nd April 2022) for the 2022/23 season.
The letter reconfirms the eligible cohorts for the 2022/23 season and the vaccines which will be reimbursable under the 2022/23 Community Pharmacy Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Advanced Service (Flu Vaccination Service); these were originally detailed in the flu vaccination reimbursement letter issued on 2nd March 2022.
The letter also highlights the influenza vaccine uptake for the 2021/22 season across the eligible cohorts, compared to the 2020/21 season. It acknowledges that the last two years have been the most successful vaccination programmes, achieving higher uptakes in most cohorts compared to previous years.
The 2022/23 vaccination ambition
To support the drive to achieve the 2022/23 vaccine uptake ambitions, the letter encourages community pharmacy contractors to:
“Proactively offer influenza vaccination to any patient they identify as being eligible to receive it should the patient present in the pharmacy for any reason”.
The letter also promotes the need to support those who are living in the most deprived areas, from ethnic minorities and other underserved communities, to have as high an uptake as the population as a whole.
Vaccine stock
As previously stated in the 2nd March 2022 letter, the annual flu vaccination programme letter notes that stock is not anticipated to be centrally procured by DHSC for the 2022/23 season and, therefore, contractors are strongly urged to ensure that have ordered sufficient volumes of vaccine to serve their eligible populations.
Read the annual flu vaccination programme letter for the 2022/23 season
