Pharmacy teams should help the public keep their confidence in flu vaccinations, in the light of negative publicity from last year's ineffective vaccine, says Well Pharmacy's healthcare development manager, Rachael Sharples.

"The Department of Health recommends that everyone in an at-risk group should receive their flu jab this year and at this stage there is nothing to indicate that issues encountered last year will be repeated," she told P3.

"For most people the effects of flu will result in time off work and a couple of weeks in bed. However, the complications of flu can be serious, particularly for the elderly or those with existing medical conditions. Each year, its estimated that flu results in up to 31,2000 hospital admissions and up to 1.164 million GP consultations."

Does the ineffectiveness of last year's jab mean this year's jab won't work either?

"The flu virus constantly mutates meaning that each year the World Health Organisation has to make a judgement about which strains they expect to be the most prevalent in the coming winter. This usually happens around February time. The seasonal flu vaccine is then manufactured to provide protection against these strains and this explains why you need to have a flu jab each year.

"Last year, the flu virus underwent significant and unexpected mutations during the time the vaccine was being manufactured. In the end, the vaccine was only effective for around three per cent of people.

"Last year we also saw a significant increase in the number of deaths over the winter period, in fact deaths were up by about one-third. Flu related deaths were also higher than normal, in part, possible due to the lack of vaccine efficacy. This goes to show how important the flu vaccine is in preventing complications of, and deaths from, flu."

What advice would you give pharmacists looking to promote the winter flu jab to customers?

Ms Sharples offers the following advice:

Engage your team

· Make sure all colleagues can explain the benefits of having a flu jab, understand the key principles around why annual vaccination is necessary and are able to correct any common misconceptions, for example that having a flu jab can't give you flu!

· Get your team involved in running the service. Colleagues should be able to identify eligible customers and help them go through the consent form

· Think about what will work best in your branch. The service is advertised as a drop-in service, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t make appointments if that works better for you and your customers. This is also helpful is your accredited pharmacist is only in branch for part of the week

· Vaccinate your team. As well as protecting themselves, it’s also a great conversation opener.

Tell your customers

· Ask all your customers if they have had a flu jab and tell them about the benefits

· Ask repeat prescription customers if they have had a jab and, if not, book them an appointment for the next time they are due in to collect their prescription

· MUR and NMS consultations – this is a great opportunity to talk about the service

· EPS – talk about the service when you’re signing customers up for EPS

· Let local business know about your flu service and book appointments if there are large numbers of employees

· Speak to your GP surgery and let them know about your service, make sure they know you will be feeding back vaccination records and providing read codes

· Consider arranging an in-branch flu clinic on a Saturday and book in appointments, we’ve heard some great stories of these working well.

Use promotional material

· Display poster and leaflets and take the opportunity to theme your branch for flu

· Think about what else might help raise awareness, whether its t-shirts, badges, pens.