UEA start £1.4 million project to increase flu vaccine uptake amongst care home staff
All staff working in Norfolk's care homes will be offered a flu vaccine for free, at a time most convenient to them.
The University of East Anglia has started a £1.4 million project to increase the number of care home staff taking the flu vaccine.
This trial will test different ways of encouraging staff to take up the vaccine across care homes in East Anglia, London and the East Midlands.
Dr Amrish Patel, from the University of East Anglia and part of the 'The Flu care intervention project' hopes this will reduce the number of cases in care homes and improve the uptake of other vaccines.
He told us that the Norfolk's flu vaccination rate is believed to currently stand at 31%, while the national average stands at 34%.
He says these figures are "quite worrying" considering the World Health Organisation (W.H.O) says 75% of the population needs to be vaccinated to create collective immunity.
He went on the tell us that Norfolk is being used in this project because its "very different to London", in terms of its age demographic, ethnic diversity and geography.
He says its good to trial intervention in a range of different places so that a national approach can be created.
He told us that as part of this project, "anybody who works at a care home will be entitled to a free vaccination, at a time that's most convenient for them".
He went on to say that this will see a number of vaccination sites set up in each care-home, just before the flu season.
But he warns that "vaccines can't be 100% perfect" and that vulnerable peoples exposure to the virus needs to be reduced as much as possible. The best way to do this, he told us, "is to make sure that everybody around them, such workers in their care home, are fully vaccinated."
He concluded by tell us that flu is still incredibly dangerous, "there is a lot of variation but some years, deaths can go down to ten thousands and then shoot up to 30 thousand the next year".