Drop in flu jab uptake by NHS Highland staff
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THE proportion of NHS Highland staff choosing to get immunised against the flu actually fell last winter, figures have revealed.
Just 36 per cent of staff across the area chose to get the jab in 2015 – down from 42 per cent the year before.
That’s despite the risk of infected frontline staff passing the virus on to vulnerable patients including the elderly and children.
Every year, a national drive sees over-65s and those with underlying health conditions such as a heart condition or diabetes encouraged to get the free jab.
And figures released earlier this year showed that uptake amongst the Highland public was much higher than for NHS staff themselves, with 71 per cent of pensioners and 48 per cent of those with an underlying condition choosing to get the jab in 2014.
Last year there was a call for consideration to be given to making the immunisation compulsory for frontline health staff as is often the case in the USA.
Unions, however, warned there could be “significant resistance” to such a move as public health medicine consultant Ken Oates also said the health board had to be “realistic” about how high an uptake it could achieve among staff.
“Our health staff are no different from the rest of the population,” he said. “They have reasons why they might not want to be flu vaccinated.
“I think we have to be realistic but we are doing all that we can to promote the vaccine and we would like to see the uptake much higher than it is.”
This week the health authority confirmed they were continuing to operate on a voluntary basis only.
