Flu is a dangerous illness; historically UK annual death rates are around 15,000 per year but can, in bad years, reach 25,000. During the Coronavirus pandemic this fell into the low 100s. Coronavirus deaths masked the figures but the precautions in place during the pandemic such as the social distancing, mask wearing and low level of international travel drastically reduced the spread of this airborne transmitted virus. Because the flu rates have been so low for a couple of years, immunity in the general population is likely to be very reduced, the strains will be new and, without precautions, there could be many more cases of serious illness.

Even normally healthy individuals who catch flu tend to feel very unwell for 4 or 5 days and they can suffer persistent fatigue for much longer. Although someone may wish to go to work with flu, this is inadvisable as they are infectious for the first week of the illness. Flu is highly transmissible and their colleagues are likely to be infected and most will not be able to work during the acute stages of their illness.

By offering flu vaccinations to your employees ahead of the winter months, you can introduce a low cost and highly valued employee benefit that makes strong commercial sense. Increasing the level of flu protection in your workforce will limit disruption to your business by reducing the amount of sickness absences.

The flu vaccine is very safe and effective at either preventing infection altogether or reducing the number of people that become seriously unwell. Although the Government has maintained the number of groups of people entitled to receive the vaccine through the NHS, many eligible people were unable to access it last year. There are many advantages of offering flu vaccinations as part of workplace wellness programmes and this year the benefits are likely to be even greater.

How Lincoln Occupational Health can help your workforce

Lincoln Occupational Health (LOH) can provide a flu vaccination programme for your company to help protect and promote employee health during the flu season. We can attend onsite to deliver a flu vaccination clinic or/and provide flu vouchers which can be redeemed at pharmacies.

• Onsite clinic: A Nurse can travel to your company with the all the equipment and vaccines required. A dedicated room (preferably not too small) with a table, chair and phone will need to be allocated, where the vaccinations can take place. 80 flu vaccinations can be delivered in a full day or 40 in a half day.

• Online booking system: Our online booking system allows the employee to click on a link and book an appointment time which suits them. The webpage states the precautions to be considered prior to receiving the vaccine and gives a link to the NHS flu website which allows for any questions regarding flu vaccinations to be answered. The system sends an email and SMS confirming the appointment as well as an email reminder nearer the time. It also allows for easy cancellation and rescheduling. The booking system has ISO 27001 certification.

• Flu vouchers: Flu e-vouchers can be provided and distributed from late September onwards to be in line with the retailers’ availability of the flu vaccine. Retailers taking part this year include the following (where pharmacies are located): Morrisons, Tesco, Lloyds, Superdrug, Well (formally Co-op) and Asda. E-vouchers can be sent out via email individually to employees following requests received from our designated flu email address. Alternatively they can be emailed across in bulk to a main contact within the company.