Agenda item

To outline the approach to the development and operationalisation of the 2024-25 winter plan for immunisations for the Brent borough and an update on progress to date for seasonal immunisations.

Zaid Dowlut (Head of Place – Primary Care, NWL ICB) introduced the report, which provided an update on Brent’s flu and covid-19 vaccination programme 2024 in the context of the national immunisation programme. In introducing the report, he highlighted the following key points:

·         In line with national guidance, the NHS was offering the vaccination programme in Brent to the eligible cohort, which remained the same as the previous year as outlined in section 3.5 of the report.

·         The adult flu campaign began on 3 October 2024 and the children’s and maternal flu campaign began in early September. By the end of the first week of October over 61,000 flu vaccinations had been carried out in Brent which included those administered by GPs, Primary Care Networks (PCNs) and community pharmacies.

·         Another vaccination was also being delivered which was the RSV vaccination for older adults particularly at risk and pregnant women passed more than 28 weeks gestation to protect their babies.

·         Up to 6 October 2024, there had been 16,500 covid-19 vaccinations administered with no figures available yet for the remainder of the month. Those vaccinations had been delivered in community pharmacies and PCNs, supported by the NWL roving team and UCLH Find and Treat Teams. Whilst those mechanisms were being well utilised and good progress was being made, the progress did vary across NWL.

·         The appendix to the report provided a breakdown of vaccination rates by PCN areas in Brent, with Harness being the leading PCN.

·         Members were reassured that throughout Brent, primary care was working in partnership with the NWL roving team, GPs, PCNs and UCLH, as well as Brent Health Matters (BHM) which had a network of events planned in November 2024 to promote the vaccinations campaign. 

The Chair then invited contributions from those present. The following points were made:

·         The Board noted the drive to encourage parents to get their 2-3 year olds vaccinated and, highlighting the fact that older children were also eligible, asked what the general advice was for parents and carers who had children older than 2-3 years old. They were advised that the guidance stated that all children within the eligibility criteria should be vaccinated, but NWL ICB had a task in convincing parents of the benefits of the vaccination programme, which was why they had scheduled promotion events with partners such as BHM to disseminate those messages.  

·         The Board were pleased there appeared to be good take up from community pharmacies in delivering vaccinations and an increase in the number of locations that people could receive their vaccinations, but raised concerns that there were still some gaps in coverage such as in Church End where there were no local pharmacists delivering vaccinations and challenges in encouraging take up. They queried how proactive the NHS was in reaching out to pharmacies to encourage them to get authorisation to administer vaccinations. In response, officers agreed to take away the issue relating to the south of the Borough to reach out to pharmacies and increase the coverage of BHM in raising awareness of the benefits of vaccination across those communities. The Health Inequalities Group focused on trying to increase community pharmacy activity and had received expressions of interest in vaccinations from a considerable amount of pharmacies which were now going through the assurance process, one of which was close to Church End.

·         In response to what partners and other public services could do to support the work and improve take up of vaccinations, Daniel Gibbs highlighted that BHM had already made a big difference with their outreach programme and supporting hard to reach populations. He added that there was now a requirement to work as one team across the whole of NWL area covering all 8 boroughs and push towards getting assurance signed off for community pharmacists to deliver vaccinations.

·         In response to what work was being done to tackle vaccine hesitancy and fatigue, the Board heard that this was a challenge given the diverse communities within the borough, and there was constant information sharing and outreach into communities to reinforce the message about the importance of vaccinations in the prevention of disease. This was primarily done through BHM, who, during covid, had built bridges with a lot of communities that had not taken up vaccinations. BHM was following that same approach, working with community leaders and building trust amongst the community.

In concluding the discussion and noting the update, the Board welcomed the work being undertaken to proactively reach parts of the borough with low vaccination rates and requested a further update on the impact of the increase in community pharmacies delivering vaccinations.