This year we will see the introduction of the National RSV Vaccination Programme. RSV stands for Respiratory Syncytial Virus. It typically causes mild cold-like viral symptoms, but in some patients it can cause more severe infections such as bronchiolitis and pneumonia.
The rollout starts from 1st September 2024, includes a vaccine for pregnant women over 28 weeks to help protect their newborn babies, a routine programme for those over 75 years and a one-off campaign for those aged 75 to 79 years.
Each year in the UK, RSV accounts for around 30,000 hospitalisations in children aged under 5 and around 9,000 admissions in those over 75.
Pregnant women will be vaccinated via maternity services, so please speak to your midwife. Greystoke will be sending invitations to eligible patients in the other groups to book an appointment in early September. RSV vaccine offers protection for a number of years and is therefore not an annual seasonal vaccine. Similar to shingles vaccination, we are unable to vaccinate patients outside the specified groups.
As with all vaccines, we would ask you to cancel your appointment if you feel very unwell or have a fever. Mild viral illness would not require cancellation. Below is a link to the Government guidance for RSV. If anyone requires a paper copy, they will be available at reception. If you have any questions, please contact us via telephone or through our usual triage system. We will ask you to sign a consent form on arrival. The guidance is to not normally give RSV on the same day as covid and flu vaccinations.
Please see links below for information.
Covid and Flu Vaccinations
We will be providing covid and flu vaccinations for all eligible patients in October 2024. We would normally start vaccinating adults in September, but the evidence shows that flu normally peaks in December and January and the Government have therefore specified an October start date. The dates of our adult clinics will be Sunday 6th October and Saturday 12th October. Any patients who are unable to attend on those dates will be offered an appointment in our catch up clinics.
We can give both flu and covid on the same day. We order our flu vaccinations a year in advance (we are now ordering for 2025/56 season), so if you are eligible, please try to attend Greystoke for your vaccination as we have already invested in stock for you! The clinics normally run very efficiently and invitations will be sent out shortly.
Schools will operate their usual nasal flu programmes. Children eligible for GP nasal flu will be contacted with an appointment.