NHS: Flu Jab

Flu vaccination is available every year on the NHS to help protect adults and children at risk of flu and its complications.

Flu can be unpleasant, but if you are otherwise healthy it will usually clear up on its own within a week.

However, flu can be more severe in certain people, such as:

• anyone aged 65 and over
• pregnant women
• children and adults with an underlying health condition (such as long-term heart or respiratory disease)
• children and adults with weakened immune systems

Anyone in these risk groups is more likely to develop potentially serious complications of flu, such as pneumonia (a lung infection), so it’s recommended that they have a flu vaccine every year to protect them.

The injected flu vaccine is offered free on the NHS annually to:

• adults over the age of 18 at risk of flu (including everyone aged 65 and over)
• pregnant women
• children aged six months to two years at risk of flu

You can have your NHS flu jab at:

• your GP surgery
• a local pharmacy offering the service
• your midwifery service if they offer it for pregnant women

Some community pharmacies now offer flu vaccination to adults (but not children) at risk of flu including pregnant women, people aged 65 and over, people with long-term health conditions and carers.

If you have your flu jab at a pharmacy, you don’t have to inform your GP – it is up to the pharmacist to do that.

Please see the NHS website for more: https://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/vaccinations/Pages/flu-influenza-vaccine.aspx?