Common Vaccinations
More helpful information to follow.
Flu vaccinations
if you are in an eligible group, then please contact the surgery to make an appointment. Please click on the following link to see a short video on why getting vaccinated against influenza is so important.
Flu video
MMR
Common questions about the MMR vaccine. Please click on the following link to watch a short video.
Bexley MMR video
Measles cases are increasing in England so there is a campaign to make sure that those who are most vulnerable are fully vaccinated.
Texts and letters are going out centrally to certain-aged patients whose NHS records suggest that they have not completed their two-dose course of the MMR vaccine.
Texts/letters are going out to:
From 05/02/2024 – All children in England aged 6-11, and those aged 11-16 in London and parts of the West Midlands.
From 19/02/2024 – All young adults in England, and those aged 19-25 in London and parts of the West Midlands.
Unfortunately, the searches being used centrally are sometimes incorrect and the child/young adult has in fact had their two-dose course!
If you receive a text/letter and know that you haven’t had both doses, or are unsure whether you have or not, please check your red book (if you have one) before telephoning the surgery. The Receptionists will see if you are flagged up on our system as being eligible and, if so, will make you an appointment with one of our Nurses.
If our system believes that you have had both but you are not reassured, they will send a request to our admin team to check your records more thoroughly and will report back to you.
RSV vaccinations
What is RSV?
Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is an infectious disease of the airways and lungs. RSV infection often causes symptoms similar to a cold, including cough, sore throat, sneezing and runny or blocked nose. It can also make you become wheezy or short of breath and lead to pneumonia and other life-threatening conditions. There is no specific treatment, and most infections will get better by themselves.
Every year thousands of older adults need hospital care for RSV, and some of them will die. RSV can be more severe in people with medical conditions such as heart or lung disease or a weakened immune system. RSV infection is common in young children but is most serious for small babies and for older people.
The NHS is introducing free RSV vaccinations for the first time from 01/09/2024 for two patient cohorts:
Older adults: Aged between 75-79 on 01/09/2024. You can have the vaccine up until the day before you turn 80. A single dose is expected to give good protection for a few years.
Pregnant women from 28 weeks to protect their unborn child. A vaccination for each pregnancy.
Shingles vaccinations
What is shingles?
Shingles is an infection of a nerve and the area of skin around it. It is caused by the herpes varicella-zoster virus, which also causes chickenpox. Following chickenpox infection, the virus can lie dormant in the nervous tissue but may reappear following reactivation as shingles. Reactivation of this latent VZV infection, generally occurring decades later, causes shingles. It is possible to have shingles more than once. Symptoms include: rashes or blisters on one side of the body, burning or shooting pain, itching, fever, fatigue or headache. On average, cases last 3 to 5 weeks. There is no cure for shingles and typically painkilling medication is provided to relieve symptoms. Shingles can be very painful and tends to affect people more commonly as they get older, and the older you are, the worse it can be. For some, the pain caused by shingles can last for many years. The risk of shingles is also higher in those with conditions such as diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis.
Almost 30% of individuals develop a painful complication called post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN), which occurs when the reactivated virus causes damage to nerve fibres. This is persistent pain at the site of the shingles infection that extends beyond the period of the rash. It usually lasts from 3 to 6 months but can persist for longer. The resultant intractable pain can severely limit the ability to carry out daily activities, and PHN is therefore a debilitating condition that can significantly impair quality of life. PHN does not respond to painkillers such as paracetamol or ibuprofen, so is extremely difficult to treat and may result in hospitalisation. There is no cure.
Here is a poster showing who is eligible under the NHS Shingles Vaccination Programme. If you are eligible, please make an appointment with one of our Nurses
NHS Shingles Vaccination Programme Eligibility Poster (PDF, 524KB)