NHS bosses admit staff are missing flu jabs because of work pressures
Twm Owen, Local Democracy Reporter
Doctors and nurses are failing to get the flu vaccine due to difficulty in getting time off work, NHS bosses have admitted.
The Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, which runs hospitals across Gwent as well as employing district nurses and other medical staff who deliver services in the community and visit patients in their own homes, has fallen short of Welsh Government staff vaccination targets.
Last winter just 46.45 per cent of the board’s staff had been protected against the flu though that was an improvement on the 37.31 per cent vaccination rate from 2024/25.
That meant while 7,216 staff, from those working in urgent care to staff in the estates department, were vaccinated last winter there were still 4,436 employees who hadn’t received their jabs.
The board is redoubling efforts to vaccinate staff ahead of the coming winter with information already provided over the staff intranet, board members were told at their September meeting.
Chairman response
Chairman Andrew Morgan, who was appointed in May, said while he recognised the staff vaccination rate had increased by more than nine per cent he said: “That is still below 50 per cent of staff.”
He asked what is being done to address the low vaccination rate and said an improvement could help address high rates of staff sickness being experienced by the board and help towards keeping a sufficient number working over the winter.
Professor Tracy Daszkiewicz, the board’s director of public health, said: “A lot of staff have said the biggest challenge is getting time off work which is why it is important we take the service to them.
“We are taking a more targeted approach this year. Hopefully we will see a difference.”
Professor Daszkiewicz said vaccination teams are visiting staff on the wards while she some staff also don’t realise they are entitled to a vaccination.
She said: “Within my own team as well people wouldn’t necessarily have had the vaccine and there is a misconception of who is entitled. Frontline staff working with potentially vulnerable people are all eligible.”
Low uptake
Director of planning Hannah Evans confirmed work on rolling out the flu vaccine for staff has already started but said reasons for the low uptake were likely “multifactorial”.
Independent board member Akmal Hanuk said: “Staff get around half an hour for lunch to run to the canteen, get something to eat and to get vaccinated is not that easy.”
In response Prof Daszkiewics said that is why the board is taking a “different approach” and taking vaccinations to staff at their workplace.
Figures from winter 2025/26 show while 53.05 per cent of urgent care staff and 51.10 per cent of those working in surgery were vaccinated among the board’s medicine staff just 39.64 were protected.
The lowest uptake was among the mental health team at just 33.55 per cent.
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Really shocking figures. Surely something must be done about staff going sick with flu because they didn’t get vaccinated. NHS employees should set an example to the general public and I hope the NHS boss is aiming for much higher figures very soon.
When I worked in East Lancs Hospital they had a cart come round to vaccinate staff who couldn’t get to occupational health or other places. Years ago doctors and nurses were fast tracked through the NHS not as a privilege but because they were needed to get well quickly to keep the service running. Gradually that and other sensible support was removed usually to make cheeseparing savings or to demean and humiliate staff and show that if a manager ordered something they were to do it even if wrong on clinical grounds.