Birmingham faces shortage of 130,000 does of flu vaccine

Birmingham will not hit its flu vaccine targets this winter, it has been revealed – with the city facing a shortfall of 130,000 doses.

A national shortage across the whole country will hit the city particularly hard, BirminghamWorld has been told.

There is some flu vaccination stock available to make up for shortfalls across the country - but Birmingham health bosses have not yet been told if they will get any over the coming weeks.

The issue was revealed ahead of the Health and Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

It comes as Covid cases continue to rise in the city with the latest figures showing an increase of 1,572 over the weekend – and six more deaths were recorded.

The rate of infection in Birmingham now stands at 14,665 cases per 100,000 people, higher than the England average of 12,779.

The NHS has warned that respiratory illnesses like the flu could claim 60,000 lives this winter.

As a result, a large-scale flu jab programme is being launched, encouraging more people than ever to get the vaccine if they are eligible.

The aim is to vaccinate 35 million people against the flu this year, more than double the 14 million people were vaccinated in 2019-2020.

What risk does the flu vaccine shortfall pose?

Last year flu vaccinations reached record levels despite the pandemic, with more than 80 per cent of people over the age of 65 receiving their vaccination before January.

However it now appears that the country could be facing a nationwide shortage.

The Birmingham City Council Scrutiny Committee papers state: “Birmingham will not hit flu vaccine targets due to reduced vaccine coming into the whole system, approx. 130K doses short.

“NHSE National team have confirmed there is some National stock available for systems but no detail has yet been shared with us.”

Kymm Skidmore, Project Manager, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, told the committee today (Tuesday October 19): “Picking up on a couple of the challenges we’ve had, one has been flu supply for the winter. So the flu supply ordered in January is not enough for us to reach the national targets provided to us.

“There is a national flu supply, and it’s not yet clear what the process is around how we can order that, but we will be allocated based on fair shares – we just don’t know the details of when we’ll get that.

“I don’t know the exact numbers that are going to be allocated to us as a system – it’s done at a national level, and there are conversations yet to be had about how that could be split regionally.

“We’re still waiting on more updates on that, and details around what the process will be for sites to request additional vaccine.”

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