Practices will from this week no longer face a restriction on how much Fluenz Tetra vaccine they order for the childhood flu vaccine programme.
Public health chiefs initially placed a cap of 50 doses of the vaccine per week, per practice when ordering for this year’s flu vaccination campaign got underway – a decision it said was down to supply problems and the limited shelf-life of the vaccine.
But Public Health England’s latest vaccine update states that from this Monday, ‘the temporary order limit for Fluenz tetra will be lifted for English customers’.
The update adds that practices should not ‘over-order’ the vaccine as deliveries of the vaccine are being made weekly.
It states: ‘Deliveries of Fluenz Tetra are being made weekly alongside your usual deliveries for childhood vaccines, and there is no need for practices to over order or stockpile vaccine unnecessarily. We suggest only ordering enough stock to cover the next one or two weeks to minimise wastage. The vaccine will be available throughout the entire flu season to ensure there is in-date stock available into the new year.’
