The issue of seasonal flu vaccination continues to dominate the headlines during this (at the time of writing) mildest of autumns.

Uptake of the flu jab is down by around 6 per cent and health officials, led by the Royal College of General Practitioners, are worried that the uncharacteristically warm weather is deterring or delaying patients from having the jab, even though cold conditions are not always a factor in flu outbreaks. This could increase the risks for the frail elderly and other ‘at risk’ groups, as well as potentially adding to winter pressures in the NHS.

Some GPs are pointing accusatory fingers at the national pharmacy flu vaccination service for disrupting their own flu jab programmes and creating confusion in the minds of patients. This is patently unfounded nonsense although it is possible that the lack of a common recording platform for the vaccinations is depressing the figures to a certain extent.

Community pharmacies must report any NHS flu vaccination they give to the patient’s GP practice, either on the day of the vaccination or the day after, but the practice then has to enter the information  into their own records. Clearly this is a cumbersome process that could be much improved if pharmacists had secure access to patient records, something that the pharmacy bodies were quick to point out.

Pharmacy is part of the solution, not the problem, when it comes to boosting flu jab uptake, especially in hard-to-reach groups. The sooner GPs accept this, the better.