Flu plea as fewer than third of NHS staff have jab

Flu vaccinations became available in October with University Hospitals Tees staff urged to have one

Fewer than a third of NHS staff on Teesside have taken up flu jabs as a potentially lethal variant of the illness has started to spread.

Leaders of the University Hospitals Tees group called on workers to protect their families and get their vaccines as they said "flu has arrived early".

Jab rates had been hit nationally by apathy and "anti-vaxxers" in local communities since the Covid pandemic, a board meeting of the group, which covers both North Tees and Hartlepool and South Tees NHS Foundation Trusts, was told.

Group chief executive Stacey Hunter said the latest strain could be "catastrophic for people" and urged colleagues to take the vaccine.

Chief people officer Rachael Metcalf said the rates of vaccinations were 32.2% for North Tees, which covers the University Hospital of North Tees, and 29% for South Tees, which covers James Cook University Hospital, with an overall rate of 30% between the trusts.

She said: "Regionally we're ahead of where we were this time last year, but we need to go further faster."

'Apathy is real'

Director of communications Ruth Dalton said officers had been sent to ask people in their communities about vaccinations, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

She said: "The big thing that came back from the feedback from our populations, certainly in Teesside centrally, was, 'we don't want to have this jab because there's aftermath repercussions, we'll feel ill'.

"I feel like the apathy is real and we've just got to continuously counter that."

Ms Hunter said: "Nationally the rates are really down, we know some of this is vaccination apathy or people who are worried about vaccination because of all the stuff that came post-Covid, from the anti-vaxxers, as they're described.

"You've got to accept there's some of that at play, but fundamentally we are doing better than we were this time last year.

"The teams are doing well around making it as accessible as possible for people."