UK could face ‘flu-nami’ as jab uptake is lowest in decades, here’s what we know

The UK could be facing a ‘flu-nami’ as NHS data shows hospitalisations in England are up sevenfold in one month. Last week alone nearly 4,000 patients a day were hospitalised by the virus and yet flu jab uptake remains low, with the NHS not even able to convince its own staff to take the vaccine.

Data collected by the UK Health Security Agency shows only 41.8 per cent of all frontline staff in the NHS in England got the free flu jab by November 30, which is the lowest annual uptake since 2012, according to the Daily Mail.

Free flu jab

Frontline NHS staff are offered free flu vaccines every year to protect both the public and the NHS. The jab reduces the chance of NHS staff becoming ill and needing to take time off work but it is also done to help protect patients from being infected by flu.

Professor Paul Hunter, a public health expert at the University of East Anglia, commented, as per the Daily Mail:

One of the biggest problems during a bad flu year is health care staff going off sick with the flu and so staffing levels become unable to cope with demand on the NHS.

The more health care workers [that] catch flu, the more likely it is that vulnerable patients become infected and so add to the pressure on health services because of delayed discharges or need for respiratory beds.

I suspect some of the low uptake is down to vaccine fatigue.

Flu admissions spike

The news comes as flu admissions peaked on December 23 with 3,880 patients in general beds and 288 in critical care. Meanwhile, NHS figures show 63,296 staff per day, on average, in the weeks leading up to Christmas were off sick. December 21 was the worst day for NHS staff being off sick, with 66,191 missing work.

An NHS England spokesperson said they are continuing to try and convince staff to get the flu vaccine but thanked those that had already done so, as per the Daily Mail:

Flu has a serious impact on the health of thousands of people every year, and the NHS needs as many of its staff as possible to be fighting fit over the coming months, so we continue to promote vaccination uptake across healthcare workers.

Making the flu vaccine mandatory for NHS staff was considered by former health secretary Matt Hancock, however, nobody since then has been willing to impose the condition. A similar scheme for Covid-19 jabs was abandoned at the last minute by Sajid Javid as it would have led to crippling staff shortages, with up to 80,000 employees being forced to leave.

Sources used:

- Daily Mail'Flu jab uptake among NHS staff tumbles to lowest level in A DECADE despite warnings that the UK faces 'flu-nami''

-Daily Mail 'Twin-demic is HERE: Flu admissions up SEVEN-FOLD in a month while Covid sees staff absences spike and hospitalisations reach two-month high'