The Department of Health And Social Care have just released the following statement ahead of full guidelines to be issued for PAs and Direct Payments users:

“All frontline health and social care workers should get the winter flu vaccination – including all Personal Assistants (PAs). For the first time, this year, PAs will be able to access the vaccine free of charge from GPs and community pharmacies, via the NHS Complementary Scheme. This vaccination is available now. (Local availability may vary).

To access the scheme, PAs will simply need to attend a GP surgery or community pharmacy and identify themselves as a PA. However, we are aware that individuals have been asked to provide proof in the past and we have therefore provided a letter that can be used for identification, as attached.

The process for PAs to access the flu vaccination, is as follows:

1. Attached is a letter for printing.

2. The direct payment holder, as employer, will fill out this letter, to prove they employ the PA. Once the PA has this, this will act as their ‘letter of entitlement’ to the vaccination.
3. They will then need to visit their local GP or community pharmacist, who will be able to give them the flu vaccination. If they need to prove their entitlement, they can use the letter of entitlement and a copy of this guidance (when published)
4. The vaccination will then be given to them, free of charge.”

(If you have a PA ID card this will also be useful to identify you as a PA)

In addition, colleagues at DHSC are keen to keep the flu campaign for this workforce going through the winter, and so are interested finding some individuals who could share their experience of getting the vaccine on social media and in newsletters. As part of this they’d like to feature some PAs getting the vaccine. If you have some examples that we can share with DHSC, please let us know.