Vaccinations this winter

Vaccination helps ease pressures on the NHS during the busy winter months. They also help prevent you, your family, and others from becoming unwell.

If you’re not sure about you or your child’s vaccine status your GP surgery can advise or you may also be able to view via the NHS app.

If you are eligible for a Covid-19 and/or flu vaccine, check out local walk-in clinics here. No appointment is needed you can just turn up.

Covid-19

The Covid-19 winter booster vaccination programme vaccinates those most at risk. Local walk-in vaccine clinics are still running and you can view them here.

If you are also eligible for a flu vaccine you may be offered this at the same time.

The Covid-19 vaccine is available to:

• anyone aged 65 years and over
• residents in a care home for older adults
• anyone aged 6 months to 64 years in a clinical risk group (as defined in tables 3 or 4  here)
• frontline NHS and social care workers, and those working in care homes for older people. Employers should signpost these staff to the most convenient COVID-19 vaccination offer. This may be through NBS, where staff can self-declare their eligibility. 

Eligible children aged 6 months to 4 years who are in a clinical risk group are eligible for vaccination, along with those aged 5 and above. 

This is a specialist service delivered in 3 locations by our hospital trusts listed below. Parents can refer their children directly into the service using Referral Form here or you can ask your GP to do so. 

• Buckinghamshire: Stoke Mandeville Hospital bht.covidvaccineteam@nhs.net
• Berkshire West: Royal Berkshire Hospital rbb-tr.vaccination.booking@nhs.net
• Oxfordshire: Townlands Hospital, Henley rbb-tr.vaccination.booking@nhs.net

For anyone newly diagnosed as immunosuppressed or who fit eligibilty  criteria, please contact your GP or hospital specialist to request vaccination outside the seasonal programme.

Further Covid-19 vaccine service information here: COVID-19 services – NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Flu

The flu vaccine is offered on the NHS every year in winter to help protect people at risk of flu complications. View info on local walk-in clinics here 

If you are also eligible for a Covid-19 vaccine you may be offered this at the same time.

The flu vaccine is available to:

• pregnant women
• all children aged 2 or 3 years old (on 31 August 2024)
• all primary and secondary school-aged children (from Reception to Year 11)
• those aged 6 months to under 65 years in clinical risk groups
• those aged 65 years and over
• people living in long-stay residential care homes or nursing homes, other long-stay health or social care facilities or a house-bound patient.
• carers in receipt of carer’s allowance, or those who are the main carer of an elderly or disabled person
• close contacts of immunocompromised individuals
• locum GPs
• social care staff without an employer-led occupational health scheme can also access the flu vaccination through their GP, community pharmacy or NBS.

Find more on symptoms and how to treat flu here: Flu – NHS

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)

RSV is a very common virus and causes hundreds of thousands of infections across the UK each winter.

For the first time from 1 September the NHS will offer vaccines for RSV, a common cause of coughs and colds which can be dangerous to older people and young children.

The jab will be available to those:

• aged 75 to 79 (your GP will send an RSV vaccination invite)
• pregnant women from 28 weeks, to protect their babies (speak to your maternity service or GP surgery about the vaccine)

Find out more here: What is RSV and is there a vaccine?