Doctors from across the trust lined up last week to have their flu jab following the launch of our winter flu campaign.  We kicked off our campaign by vaccinating all members of our trust board and representatives from staff unions and our doctors were keen to be amongst one of the first.  Now we are urging all of our staff to do the same.  In doing so, they will protect themselves and their patients from the potentially fatal effects of flu.

This year we are aiming to vaccinate at least 75% of our 6,200 workforce all of whom are eligible to receive the vaccination.  We would like all of our staff whether they are doctors, nurses, therapists, administrators, managers, housekeepers, porters or support staff to help us achieve this target.  As well as helping to protect our staff and our patients, vaccination against this year’s most common strain of seasonal flu will help us to ensure that sickness absence is kept to a minimum during the busy winter period so that we are able to provide the best level of care to our patients. 

Stuart Bell, Chief Executive, who was one of the first members of staff to have his vaccination, is urging staff to have protect themselves against flu.  “As NHS staff we are more likely to come into contact with people who are at risk from flu.  It’s important that we do our best to protect our own health during the winter, when the community we serve will need us to be there for them.  It has never been more important to take this opportunity to be vaccinated”.

Flu vaccination clinics are available in all of the counties that our staff work in and can be accessed either by pre-booking an appointment or by attending one of the drop-in clinics.  Staff can find more information about the clinic timetable via the wellbeing pages of the staff intranet site https://obmhintranet.obmh.nhs.uk/TR/staffwellbeing/Pages/Flu.aspx.