Health / Autumn vaccination programme to get under way soon
ISLANDERS eligible to receive flu or Covid vaccination this autumn will be invited to attend the vaccination centre in Lerwick, or their local health centre or outreach clinics, over the coming weeks.
NHS Shetland said people will be contacted by national or local letter, phone call, email, text or through relevant service such as antenatal clinics for pregnant women.
Some people will be given an appointment, and others will be asked to make an appointment (using the online booking portal if possible) or attend a drop-in session.
As per Scottish Government policy, the following groups of people are this year being invited for a Covid booster and seasonal flu vaccination:
- Residents in care homes for older adults
- All adults aged 65 years and over
- Individuals aged 6 months and over who are in a clinical at-risk group for Covid, including all pregnant women
- Frontline health & social care workers
- Staff in care homes for older adults.
The following groups of people are being invited for seasonal flu vaccination only:
- Those aged 18-64 years with an eligible flu-only clinical risk condition
- Unpaid carers, including young carers under the age of 16 years
- Household contacts of those with immunosuppression
- School age pupils (primary and secondary)
- Children aged 2-5 (not at school)
- Children aged 6 months to 2 years at-risk
- Poultry workers
- Non-frontline NHS workers
- Asylum seekers living in Home Office hotel or B&B accommodation
- Those experiencing homelessness
- Those experiencing substance misuse
- All prisoners within the Scottish prison estate.
Director of public health Dr Susan Laidlaw said the childhood flu programme would be delivered in schools and in health centres (for under fives) while children requiring a Covid vaccination would be contacted by NHS Shetland’s vaccination team.
If anyone eligible for vaccination has not received any information by the end of October, they should contact the vaccination team on 01595 743319 or shet.vaccinationteam@nhs.scot
Getting the vaccine privately
Dr Laidlaw acknowledged that some people might want to get vaccinated even though they are not in a group that is recommended to have it.
She said that private sales of Covid-19 vaccines were not controlled or managed by the Scottish Government, NHS Scotland or individual health boards.
She advised anyone seeking to get vaccinated privately to do so by using a reputable provider that is regulated by the appropriate national body.
“The government and NHS have no responsibility for the provision of private services and there is no requirement for private Covid vaccines to be available,” she said.
She added: “Covid vaccination is being offered to those people who will benefit from it through the winter vaccination programme, delivered by the NHS.
“In Shetland, we ensure that everyone who is recommended to have the vaccine can access it and we have had higher uptake rates in the previous programmes compared to the rest of Scotland.”
he director of public health also said that only people who are at highest risk of becoming seriously ill with Covid might need to use lateral flow tests for Covid.
Information on how to access these tests are available at NHS Inform here.
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