7 areas where patients have to travel further – and more than once if the flu and Covid vaccinations cannot be administered together .
‘ For years [ vaccinations have ] worked very , very well in general practice ,’ she says . ‘ What the change will do to the uptake , who knows ?’
But despite concerns and initial confusion , nurses who spoke to Nursing in Practice say they are confident they will be able to rise to the challenge and are not aware of any anticipated supply issues this year .
Dr Goldman shares this faith , but underlines her point about the value of consulting nurses on decisions . ‘ I ’ ve no doubt they will rise to that challenge because they always do , but what would be helpful is input into the planning .’ Ms Parsons adds : ‘ General practice has got this – they ’ re on top of it . Nurses know what works for their practice ’ s population , and they adapt and deliver an outstanding service every year .’
The autumn Covid booster campaign began in care homes in England
We would benefit from a clear strategy for future years to deliver both flu and Covid vaccines together Andrea Parkin
on 5 September , with a formal launch of the full campaign a week later .
Other programmes will also be adding to the seasonal pressure . For example , in Greater London , practices were expected to simultaneously ensure a polio booster vaccine was offered to all children aged 1-9 by 26 September , following detection of the virus in the capital ’ s sewage .
These additional challenges mean that while nurses would have previously used the opportunity provided by the high volume of contacts ahead of winter to have catch-up conversations with patients , this is likely to be pushed down the list of priorities .
‘ You get to see a lot of patients in a short space of time … normally we would use that to opportunistically catch our pneumonia vaccines for at-risk patients ,’ explains Ms Parsons . ‘ Even if we don ’ t do them there and then , we ’ ll say , “ do you know you need this as well ?”
‘ We ’ re now trying to deliver a service with all the different arms of general practice and still chase the backlog . And we have to do it , because it ’ s tied up with our contract payment … it ’ s made work very hard . So rather than a straightforward child immunisation , you might have one that ’ s had an interrupted schedule – everything takes a little bit longer .’
Winter funding With any further support for general practice over winter yet to be set out , the DHSC has confirmed general practice services will be supported through the recruitment of extra social prescribing link workers and care coordinators . Previous health secretary Steve Barclay had also ordered civil servants to significantly increase overseas recruitment of health and social care staff in time for the winter season .
A DHSC spokesperson said the Government ’ s planning for the winter period included ‘ further measures to rapidly boost capacity and resilience ,