New figures highlight need for greater flu vaccine uptake in health workers

New figures from Public Health England have underlined the need for more frontline healthcare workers to get vaccinated against influenza.

The latest vaccinations data shows that 32.4 percent of frontline healthcare workers received influenza vaccinations in September and October 2015, or 312,000 frontline healthcare workers across England.

However, this is down compared to the 36.8 percent of workers who were vaccinated in the same period in 2014 to 2015, and 35 percent of workers in 2013 to 2014.

Professor Sally Davies, chief medical officer, said: "All NHS staff have a duty to get the flu vaccine to protect their patients from infection."

Hospital surveillance in 2014 to 2015 reported a total of 1,187 admissions to intensive care and high dependency units due to lab-confirmed flu cases across England, with 8.4 percent of these resulting in death.

The government's Flu Fighter campaign, now in its fifth year, has helped the NHS to increase frontline staff flu vaccinations from 34.7 percent in 2010-2011 to 54.9 percent by the end of last winter.