Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of provision of FLUAD for those aged over 65 this winter.

The adjuvanted trivalent influenza vaccine was not available for use in 2017/18. However, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) considered the effectiveness of this vaccine for future years in October 2017. The minutes of the JCVI meeting are available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/joint-committee-on-vaccination-and-immunisation

Following the JCVI meeting, Public Health England updated their advice in the Green Book chapter on influenza so that clinicians are aware of the advice of the JCVI in relation to the adjuvanted trivalent influenza vaccine.

In addition, NHS England wrote to general practitioners (GPs) and clinical commissioning groups (via NHS England local teams) in December 2017 to provide an update on the use of the adjuvanted trivalent influenza vaccine for 2018/19. This update will also be made available to community pharmacies as part of confirming that the Advanced Influenza Vaccination service has been recommissioned in early 2018. Community pharmacies are able to order relevant vaccines as detailed in the service specification, including the enhanced vaccine for patients within the relevant cohort.

GPs and pharmacies are responsible for ordering and purchasing flu vaccines for the adult seasonal flu programme (eligible individuals aged 18 years and over) directly from manufacturers based on the published advice.