Flu Vaccination in County Durham

Healthwatch County Durham (HWCD) was approached by Durham County Council’s Public Health team to gather feedback on what people think about the NHS flu vaccination. The aim was to find out what discourages eligible people from getting their free NHS flu vaccination and find out what would encourage more people to get vaccinated. To collect the public’s views, they developed a survey and utilized a mixed model of engagement to get feedback from the public. They found that the most common reason for people not taking up the offer of free vaccine was that they were worried about the side effects and being ill afterwards. People felt that access to the vaccine, including offering it in the work place and out of hours could increase uptake. The report also outlines the observations made by the HWCD staff during the project for Durham County Council’s Public Health team to consider.