GP flu jab deliveries will begin this week after previous delays, supplier Seqirus confirmed on Friday in an update to practices.
Deliveries will commence from Wednesday 22 September, after surgeries receive a delivery note seven days prior confirming volume and the exact delivery date, a letter sent to GP practices said.
The letter said aQUIV (Fluad Tetra) orders will be fulfilled to 90% of the scheduled volume and QUIVc and (FLUCELVAX Tetra) orders will be fulfilled to 70% of the scheduled volume.
Vaccine supplier Seqirus said all GP practices will get the ‘majority’ of their vaccines ‘no more than one week’ after the original delivery date.
It comes as GPs were forced to cancel flu vaccine appointments earlier this month due to delivery delays of ‘up to two weeks’ caused by ‘unforeseen road freight challenges’.
A Seqirus spokesperson told Pulse today the company has since ‘listened to our customers’ feedback’ and ‘remodelled our delivery plans so that all GP practices and pharmacies receive the majority of their vaccines no more than one week after the original delivery date(s)’.
They added that the new delivery plan has started ‘this week and will continue through September, October and November’.
‘Over 85%’ of vaccines are set to be delivered by the end of October, with the remaining doses delivered in November.
The Seqirus spokesperson said: ‘We trust that with this certainty around delivery, our customers will be able to plan their immunisation clinics with confidence.’
But some GP practices still received flu vaccine deliveries despite being told they would be cancelled by Seqirus, and had to reverse communications to patients.
The vaccines minister had said that the delays would not cause a delay to the overall flu vaccination programme ‘at all’.
This year’s record-sized flu vaccination programme is due to target 35 million people across the UK, the Government announced in July.
