Last Updated on October 16, 2017

Free flu vaccinations for care home staff have been announced. NHS England, Public Health England, the Department of Health and NHS Improvement have unveiled measures to boost the uptake of flu vaccinations along with a package of new contingency actions to respond to pressures on frontline services this winter.

Intensified preparations include providing free flu vaccines for hundreds of thousands of care home staff at a cost of up to £10m. This follows a briefing document from Skills for Care which encourages social care providers to offer flu immunisation to their staff.

People carrying the flu virus can show no symptoms, meaning healthcare workers who feel fit and healthy can unwittingly infect vulnerable patients. Getting vaccinated is the best way to stop the spread of influenza and prevent deaths. It can also ease pressures that a heavy flu outbreak would place on services, such as doctors’ surgeries and busy hospital wards.

NHS staff are already offered the vaccination for free to protect patients and the public. This winter, in recognition of how important this is, NHS England will extend free jabs to care home workers and has set aside £10m to fund it.

Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, National Medical Director of NHS England said, ‘This is a timely reminder to employers and staff that we all have a professional responsibility to protect ourselves, and by doing so better protect our patients and reduce the pressure on services.’

Commenting on NHS England’s decision to offer complimentary flu vaccinations to care home workers, Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England said, ‘We applaud NHS England’s policy to offer free flu jabs to workers in care homes. Care England has long campaigned on this issue. In the past, the independent sector has been overlooked and providers have had to foot the bill themselves, which in a climate of severe financial pressures has been difficult. Being ready for winter and offering extra capacity to the already stretched NHS is yet another area where the independent sector can help.’