Vaccinations

Flu vaccine season runs from October 1st to March 31st each year. The GP will offer annual vaccination to the following groups:- 

• anyone aged 65 or more
• anyone aged from 6 months up to 65 who are being treated for chronic conditions such as diabetes, kidney disease, heart disease, immunosuppression due to certain medications or treatments such as chemotherapy, strokes, carers, COPD, and asthma where the treatment is currently inhaled systemic steroids. (This list is not exhaustive)
• Pregnant patients
• GPs will offer flu vaccine to pre-school children, whilst school health will run clinics at school. 

If you miss vaccination at our GP surgery the vaccine is also available on the NHS at many participating high street pharmacies and also trust vaccination pop up clinics. The surgery can advise.

The Pneumonia vaccine can be offered throughout the year as it is not a seasonal vaccine. Patients generally only need to be vaccinated once, however there are some more unusual medical conditions requiring 5 yearly vaccination.  

This vaccine is available for those aged 65 and it aims to help protect them against pneumococcal infection which can cause diseases such as pneumonia, septicaemia (blood poisoning) and meningitis.

The vaccine can be given alongside of other vaccines such as flu and shingles. 

As the vaccine is not seasonal we will not run a specific clinic for this but will take the opportunity to offer it when we run other clinics. 

This is a new vaccine being introduced this autumn. The full name is Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) which is a common respiratory virus that can cause lung infections. The infection can happen at any age and generally causes mild respiratory illness however the effects can be more severe in some cases. 

GP surgeries are being asked to offer this vaccine to older adults (those aged 75 and above but who have not yet turned 80). 

The vaccine will also be offered if you are 28 weeks pregnant but this will be given by the HSC Trust maternity services so please check with your midwife. 

It is recommended that this vaccine is not given at the same time as Flu and/or Covid vaccines. This means that the surgery will have to run a separate RSV clinic. 

The Department of Health would like eligible patients vaccinated as soon as possible and ideally in the run up to, and, during the flu season. Vaccine supplies have not yet arrived at surgery level and we have been advised that the RSV is not a seasonal vaccine and we can offer it throughout the year dependent on vaccine supplies. 

The surgery will be in contact with eligible patients in due course. 

This is a ten year vaccination programme which aims to call patients forward for vaccine in groups according to their date of birth. 

The vaccine is not considered effective in those patients who are aged 80 or more. 

This vaccine will be offered to the relevant/current group throughout the year and the vaccination year runs from 1st September to 31st August.

We are currently preparing for Group 2 and aim to run a clinic in September depending on vaccine availability.

Please do not worry if you cannot get booked into the first clinic, we have 10 months to get first doses completed and other clinics will be made available as further supplies of vaccine are delivered to the surgery. 

Patients will need to have 2 doses of this vaccine to fully protect against shingles infection.