90% of Dorset County Hospital staff vaccinated against Flu
Very few cases have been reported at DCH this year
Almost 90% of staff at Dorset County Hospital have been given this year’s flu jab.
2,471 doctors, nurses and other employees have taken up the jab this year.
The hospital vaccinated a similar number of staff last year, but that wasn’t until late February, compared with the current figures unveiled this week.
The proportion of staff vaccinated at the hospital ranked highest in the South West in 2019, and 19th overall across the country.
Alastair Hutchison is the hospital's Chief Medical Officer.
He said:
“The flu vaccination program has always been a priority for us at DCH, as it is in most hospitals, I’m sure because it is very protective both of patients and staff.
“This year it’s been particularly important because of coronavirus, and the concern that people who are at risk from coronavirus are equally at risk of influenza and the possibility that you could have both, either at the same time or in a very short space of time, which would probably make both of them even more deadly than they already are.”
Alastair says giving staff the flu jab can mean the difference between life or death for some patients who become extremely ill from the flu.
He recalled treating a woman in her 20’s with complications following a bone marrow transplant. She caught influenza while she was in the hospital and sadly died from it.
He said:
“My plea to nursing and medical staff has always been ‘get yourself vaccinated because you may well save a life, and if you’re not vaccinated you may never know that you’ve passed on influenza to somebody else and the harm that might do.”
Flu and Coronavirus
Around 250 people per day are vaccinated for COVID-19 at the hospital, and any stock left over at the end of the day is given to staff, as it can’t be frozen again.
Alastair says this year’s coronavirus restrictions have had an impact on Influenza too:
“The good news is that with all of the social distancing and wearing of face masks and hand washing that we’ve been undertaking for coronavirus; these measures will work equally well for influenza.
“That includes the lockdowns that we’ve had, and probably the tier systems that we’ve had introduced.
“All of these things mean that influenza is likely to be less severe this year than it was in previous years and certainly it’s true that we are seeing very, very few influenza cases across the hospital.”