Immunisations

Flu Vaccination

If you are in one of the following at-risk groups and eligible for a free flu vaccination please make an appointment.

Seasonal flu vaccinations are currently offered free of charge to the following at-risk groups:

  • people aged 65 years or over

  • all pregnant women (including those women who become pregnant during the flu season)

  • people with a chronic (long-term) respiratory disease, such as severe asthma,
    chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or bronchitis

  • chronic heart disease, such as heart failure

  • chronic kidney disease at stage 3, 4 or 5

  • chronic liver disease

  • chronic neurological disease, such as Parkinson’s disease or motor neurone disease

  • Type 1 & Type 2 diabetes

  • a weakened immune system due to disease (such as HIV/AIDS) or treatment (such as cancer treatment)

  • people living in long-stay residential care homes or other long-stay care facilities (This does not include, for instance, prisons, young offender institutions, or university halls of residence)

  • people who are in receipt of a carer’s allowance, or those who are the main carer of an older or disabled person whose welfare may be at risk if the carer falls ill.

People wishing to have a seasonal flu vaccination, who do not meet the above eligibility criteria, are able to get vaccinated at one of the many pharmacies and supermarkets, who offer this service.

Pneumococcal vaccination

All adults Over 65 years of age, persons greater than 2 years of age with chronic lung or heart disorder, diabetes, chronic liver disease, alcoholism, spinal fluid leaks, cardiomyopathy, chronic bronchitis, emphysema (COPD), spleen dysfunction (sickle cell disease), leukaemia, multiple myeloma, kidney failure, organ transplantation, immunosuppressive conditions including HIV.

If you are eligible to receive this vaccination please book an appointment in our  weekly combined flu/pneumococcal/shingles/whooping cough clinics or ask during your next doctor or nurse appointment.

Shingles vaccination

There is now a vaccination available to protect you from shingles.

Why is shingles vaccination needed?

Most of us had chickenpox when we were young and some will not be aware that we’ve had it. If we did have it, then the virus that caused it can stay in our bodies for the rest of our lives without our knowing it is there. Sometimes, however, the virus reactivates when we’re older and causes a disease called shingles. So shingles isn’t like other infectious diseases because you don’t catch it from someone else.

Shingles can be very painful and tends to affect people more commonly as they get older. And the older you are, the worse it can be. For some, the pain can last for many years.

There is now a vaccine that can reduce your risk of getting shingles or reduce the severity of its symptoms should you develop the disease.