GPs have sounded a warning about a cohort of students going off to university without having their meningitis jab, after being excluded from this year’s vaccination round.
The GPC requested that NHS England include the small number of new university students who were not yet 19 on 31 August in the main meningitis vaccination scheme.
However NHS England declined and, instead, NHS Employers have advised that university practices should discuss the vaccination of these patients with their commissioner on a case-by-case basis.
But the GPC said that even if this meant the vaccinations were funded, it may not sufficiently cover the workload for practices.
In a letter to LMCs, the GPC said: ‘Although we are pleased that this allows for these patients to be protected and should allow for payment to be made, we appreciate that the workload involved in claiming may negate any overall income received for the practices, and we would have preferred an amendment to the scheme.’
According to the GPC, the affected students were born after 1 September 1997 and began university this autumn.
