In reply to keith-ratcliffe:
> In Scotland there is currently a huge backlog of the regular flu vaccine. This year it is being handled nationally rather than by surgeries. I currently might have to wait till December to get mine while in previous years it would have been this week when we had the mass clinic. A real shambles at a time when it matters.
In England (e.g. the surgeries I work at):
- the surgeries ordered their flu vaccines back in January, based on estimates of who would be on the next (i.e. 2020-21) winter's flu list.
- subsequently the gov't have declared that even more people should try and have the flu jab (over 50s, people in the same household as someone who's at high risk of Covid complications, etc).
- instructions to GPs are to prioritise the usual flu list patients first, and once they've been done then move on to the new "extra" lists.
- the flu jabs (which were ordered in January, remember) arrive in dribs and drabs. When a batch of jabs arrives, the surgery books patients in for their jab. If you book patients in before the jabs have physically arrived, you risk having to cancel a flu clinic or turn people away because there aren't enough jabs available (yes, this has happened).
- we haven't yet been told where the jabs for the extra patients will come from, or when they will arrive, but we've been told to move on to the extra groups from November at the earliest.
Lots of information here https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/annual-flu-programme#2020-to-2021...