Devon County Council wins national ‘flu fighter’ award

Devon County Council was among six winners today at the annual national NHS flu fighter awards.

The panel of judges, including the editor of Nursing Times magazine Jenni Middleton, said that the Devon team’s remarkable efforts will be promoted across the country to inspire similar work.

The awards are part of the NHS flu fighter campaign run by NHS Employers, which has helped increase the number of frontline NHS staff having flu vaccinations by 182,000 since it began in 2011.

The Devon team won in the ‘Most improved flu fighter campaign’ category against stiff competition from throughout England and Wales.

Judges noted that it is a testament to the team’s approach that the vaccination rate increased to 122 staff from ten in 2013/14.

The strategy included communications to all staff, fortnightly features and case studies in the staff e-newsletter. Upbeat campaign visuals were created using staff from a range of departments and levels.

Receiving the vaccine is not the norm in local authorities, so getting the messages across was key. A survey showed that 28 per cent of staff had been influenced to have the vaccination from seeing the campaign, showing that it successfully raised awareness and laid the groundwork for further improvements next year.

Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, presented the award and said: “This team has done fantastic work to help make the NHS an even safer place for staff, patients, and anyone they come into contact with. More than a million people use the NHS every 36 hours and many can be very vulnerable to flu. So it’s great that the majority of NHS staff find time in their busy days to seek out these voluntary vaccinations.”

There have been year-on-year increases in NHS staff flu vaccinations since flu fighter launched nationally in 2011. At the end of the last winter 541,000 (54.9 per cent) of frontline NHS staff were choosing to be vaccinated, compared with 359,000 (34.7 per cent) in 2010/11- the winter before the national campaign began.

The vaccinations are not mandatory but help to protect staff, their friends, family and patients from flu. flu fighter provides information and resources to help the NHS promote vaccinations locally and make them more convenient to have.

More details are at www.nhsemployers.org/flufighter, #flufighter and www.facebook.com/nhsflufighter.