From September 2022, we will be offering eligible patients covid autumn boosters and flu vaccinations .

We will run these programmes jointly with Testvale Surgery and so your vaccination may be offered at a different site to your registered GP where you are used to attending.

Please support your GP Surgery by having your jab with us. 

It remains vitally important that eligible patients continue to be vaccinated against both coronavirus and flu. Both vaccines are safe and effective and provide protection for you and those around you from these serious illnesses. If you get flu and Covid-19 infections at the same time, research shows that you are more likely to be seriously ill.

Seasonal flu vaccination is recommended each year for people with certain clinical conditions that could put them at risk. Initially the practice has been tasked with vaccinating the following patients:

• those aged 65 years and over
• those aged 18 to under 65 years in clinical risk groups
• children aged 2 to 3 
• pregnant women
• those in long-stay residential care homes
• carers
• close contacts of immunocompromised individuals

Please note that children between the ages of 4 years and 10 years will be given at school and not in the surgery.

If there is sufficient vaccine, the practice has subsequently been asked to vaccinate

• 50 to 64 year olds not in clinical risk groups** (including those who turn 50 by 31 March 2023)

**For patients who have no underlying health conditions, it may be possible to vaccinate this cohort of patients. However, practices have been instructed not to vaccinate this group before the middle of October 2022 and only if sufficient vaccine is available.

Coronavirus Vaccination eligibility

The detailed eligibility criteria for the Autumn Coronavirus Booster is:

• Residents in a care home for older adults and staff working in care homes for older adults
• frontline health and social care workers
• all adults aged 50 years and over
• persons aged 5 to 49 years in a clinical risk group (including pregnant women)
• persons aged 5 to 49 years who are household contacts of people with immunosuppression
• persons aged 16 to 49 years who are carers

There is currently considerable uncertainty regarding the delivery dates of both the flu vaccine and the coronavirus vaccine.

• The coronavirus Autumn Booster is scheduled to commence from 12th September 2022.
• The flu vaccine is scheduled for delivery from 19 September 2022.

Although we aim to offer eligible patients both vaccines together, the vaccines may not be physically available to the surgery because of scheduled delivery dates. This is not something the practices control.

We are planning to deliver flu and coronavirus booster doses together for our housebound patients as well as our residential and care home patients and this will be a focus of the programme for delivery from September 2022. 

Our Saturday clinics are extremely popular with our patients and we regularly vaccinate hundreds of patients on these dates.

We are planning to run clinics on Saturdays and Sundays from 24 September 2022. However, this will be contingent on vaccine availability. We are currently planning clinics on the following Saturdays and Sundays throughout September and October 2022:

• Saturday 24 September 2022
• Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 October 2022
• Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 October 2022
• Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 October 2022
• Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 October 2022

We will offer either flu or coronavirus or both to eligible patients and will either send a text message or letter to patients in early September 2022 to provide booking information.

Home Visits 

if you are unable to attend the surgery and would like a home visit please ring the surgery on 02380 580808 and we will be able to help. 

The bookings for flu and coronavirus vaccines will run differently this year. Bookings will be made through the NHS National Booking Service rather than directly through the practice.

This means that patients will be required to book an appointment themselves by following the link www.nhs.uk/covid-vaccination.  This link will not be live until the 7 September 2022 and we will notify you when your age group is eligible to book.

Over 75’s will be contacted first.

We have found the volume of calls relating to each programme to be ever more complex and so believe that this will help us with more effective administration of the programmes.

This year, we will also offer the opportunity for patients to drop in for a flu vaccination without booking. This service will be available throughout October 2022.

We will open one site and schedule staff to give flu vaccines to those eligible.

A Totton surgery will be open during the morning session to manage drop ins and this service will be available after we have completed our Saturday drop-in sessions.

There will be no need to book and patients can simply pop into the surgery to get their vaccination. A text message or letter will be sent in early September 2022 to confirm the detail. 

New Horizons will continue to send patients text message reminders for flu and coronavirus vaccinations as well as writing to patients who are at risk.

Please make sure you have informed the surgery of any changes in your mobile telephone number. Complete a slip on the reception desk to let us know of any telephone number changes.

The practice will be using two types of vaccines for adults during this flu season, so it is important you let us know your age, so we ensure you receive the correct vaccine:

1. a quadrivalent injected vaccine. (Flucelvax Tetra) This is for adults aged 18 and over but below the age of 65 years who are at increased risk from flu because of a long-term health condition.

2. an adjuvanted trivalent injected vaccine. (Fluad) This is for people aged 65 and over as it has been shown to be more effective in this age group

For children and young people aged between 2 and 3 years, the surgery will use a nasal spray vaccine (LAIV) and an alternative is available should the child require it. 

The MHRA gave approval for a new bivalent Moderna vaccine in the middle of August 2022.

This means the vaccine is designed to target two strains of Covid-19 - the original strain of coronavirus plus the omicron mutation.

At this stage it is not clear which vaccine will be offered to Totton residents, but all are effective at preventing serious illness and death from Covid-19 infection.

For more information about how important it is to protect yourself from flu this winter by having a flu vaccination, please see the following link:

Flu Vaccination Booklet

For helpful information and tips about winter health advice, winter illnesses and where to get help, as well as general information about keeping well this winter:

Stay Well This Winter

For general information about flu, how to identify whether you have got it and how to treat it, please see below:

General Flu Information

Flu Vaccination Information