Brighton hospital trust staff are being urged to have the flu vaccine – or to tell their bosses in writing that they don’t want the jab.
The plea went out from Gillian Fairfield, the interim chief executive at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Royal Sussex County Hospital.
Dr Fairfield said: “We are currently only able to evidence 40 per cent of staff having been offered the vaccine.
“A financial incentive has been made available this year to trusts who achieve, and are able to evidence, that 75 per cent of their frontline staff have been offered the flu vaccination.
“The greater incentive, however, is that the vaccination offers protection from seasonal flu to our staff and to the patients they come into contact with.
“In order to evidence that the trust has offered the vaccination, we are asking all staff to either
a) have the jab
b) sign a form to confirm that it has been offered and they are refusing for whatever reason
“This is the only way that we can evidence that we have done our part in offering the vaccination to staff and an email has gone out from our medical director today, to all doctors, asking them to lead by example.”
