Pregnant women and the vulnerable are due to begin receiving the vaccine within days. But French company Sanofi Pasteur, one of the NHS’s main suppliers, has written to GP practices saying some batches of the vaccine will be delayed. The firm supplies around a third of the three million jabs administered by GPs each year.
The letter said 60 percent of surgeries will receive the first of three deliveries as planned in the week beginning October 7. But a quarter will not receive the vaccine until a week later and a further 15 percent will have to wait two weeks.
Dr Nick Scriven, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said any delay in delivery of the flu vaccine was “a risk”.
“This year the risk could be much higher if the pattern of an early peak in influenza follows the recent Australian season – the window to vaccinate will be very, very small,” he said.
“Even if we see a ‘normal’ time frame, the time to get effective vaccination is hampered by this second delay.” Dr Scriven was referring to the World Health Organisation, which took Prof Stokes-Lampard is concerned at delay longer than scheduled deciding which strains of flu to target.
The letter also said deliveries of a second batch of vaccines due to arrive on October 21 will be delayed.
Some 62 percent will be one week late and 38 percent delayed by a fortnight.
GP practices purchase the flu vaccine directly from suppliers and are then repaid by the NHS for immunising patients. Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said the delay was “concerning”.
“Ensuring that as many of our at-risk patients as possible get their flu jabs is a priority,” she said. “It is something we plan for meticulously and work incredibly hard to deliver every year, so any delay is concerning.”
She urged patients not to be deterred from booking their jab.
Sanofi Pasteur distributes around 200 million doses of flu vaccines globally each year, 40 percent of the total. Flu kills around 8,000 people in England each year, 6,000 of whom have a serious problem with their heart or lungs.
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