Influenza: Vaccination

(asked on 10th January 2019) - View Source
Questioner
Norman Lamb Portrait
Norman Lamb
(Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the current uptake of winter 2018-19's influenza vaccination among those who are eligible for free treatment.

Answered by
Steve Brine Portrait
Steve Brine
This question was answered on 15th January 2019

Influenza vaccine coverage is closely monitored, with publication of weekly and monthly reports throughout the flu season. In addition, Public Health England publishes an annual report on gov.uk in the spring with finalised data on vaccine uptake.

The following table shows the latest available data on the uptake of the influenza vaccine amongst eligible groups for 2018/19:

Patient Group

2018/19 (%)

Patients aged 65 years or older

69.9

Patients aged six months to under 65 years in risk groups (excluding pregnant women without other risk factors)

45.1

Pregnant women (including those in risk groups)

43.8

Patients aged two years old (including those in risk groups)

41.9

Patients aged three years old (including those in risk groups)

43.5

Notes:

  1. Weekly vaccine uptake data snapshot for week one (week ending 6 January 2019)
  2. Data is provisional and from a sample of 97.2% of all automated general practitioner (GP) practices participating in the 2018/19 sentinel GP Flu survey. The data for the two and three year olds is from a sample of 97.4% of all automated GP practices participating in the 2018/19 sentinel Childhood flu GP
  3. Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/weekly-national-flu-reports-2018-to-2019-season
  4. Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/weekly-national-flu-reports-2017-to-2018-season
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