Why have I been invited?

[LimeShade]

I’ve been invited for a flu / Covid jab and I’ve no idea why. Has this happened to anyone else? Is it just a mistake?

Bit of information required, your age, any underlying conditions, etc

How old are you? And do you have any health conditions?

You'd have to ask whoever invited you.

My GP surgery often randomly offers vaccinations when they know they have a surplus 🤷‍♂️

female, 45, touch of high blood pressure, on HRT. That’s it.

It came as a text from the NHS, so I can’t just ask them!

It may be a clerical error, you can phone the GP surgery and ask because they have to put your name forward in the first place.

I get an invite every year due to long term health problems.

I get it due to high BMI.

Is you high blood pressure well controlled? If not it may count as chronic heart disease. Do you have a high bmi?

Not particularly high BMI, only on one blood pressure medication.

Kind of don’t want to ask as I want the jabs!

Apparently HBP doesn’t count as heart disease in NHS, just checked

Are you registered as a a carer?

I did once - I called the surgery, receptionist said she'd check with a dr, called me back and said it was because I was pregnant... I wasn't 🤦‍♀️. Tbf, the receptionist was apologetic (totally not her fault) and the senior doctor did call me later that day to apologise again and said he thinks it might be as I had an ultrasound a few months before the system flagged me as pregnant even though I wasn't.

But anyway, someone might have just ticked a box somewhere.

I get this every year and the one time I tried to actually go they sent me away because they didn’t know why I’d been invited. Sleeve rolled up and everything

you may have been coded wrong by GP - GP practices code everyone on what’s “wrong” with them and that info goes to public health who send out the flu/covid/shingles etc appointments as a previous poster said. once something is on your record, it can’t be removed. So for example, a hospital visit that was “query stroke” which turned out to be a migraine, will still flag you as possibly having had a stroke. And that could trigger a referral to public health for various vaccines.

Are you very overweight as that is a risk factor and enough to merit a jab.

If you want it just tell them you have a heart condition - they are not supposed to “over screen” or delve too much into your medical history.

Op why would you want the covid jab if you already have High blood pressure. It can cause myocarditis. I'd stay well away if I were you.

Aha - I had an ultrasound about 3 months ago! A vaginal one. But maybe that triggered it!

Very rarely, usually in young men and it’s mild. It’s got nothing to do with HBP

Well there should be no issue then, if they have invited you to receive them.

As per my post, people can be wrongly invited - that’s why a nurses screens the person before the jab to check they are actually eligible

I've had this multiple times with my current and previous surgery as I had a flag on my notes that was triggering an invite for the Covid vaccine, even though I didnt meet the criteria. I turned up for appointments more than once only to be told I wasn't eligible.

I asked for it to be investigated in the end as it was just wasting time and resources and eventually got to the bottom of it, it dated back to a blood test result 25 years ago!

I got an NHS invite for a flu jab. I went to get it and the pharmacy said I wasn’t eligible .

Ah ok, I’ll check with doctors then as don’t want to waste NHS time or an appointment

https://www.nhs.uk/vaccinations/flu-vaccine/ this has a list of reasons you may be given an appointment.

I get invited as I used to be eligible when I was on immune suppressants.

I'm not on them anymore and although I'd be happy to have the jabs, I don't go or try to make an appointment as I'm sure they'd turn me away like PP.

I used to get invites as I’m over 60 and my bmi was above the limit that put me at higher risk if I got covid.

following year I turned up as invited, only to find I was no longer old enough for the flu vaccine as they’d changed the age criteria and my BMI was lower than the threshold after weight loss.

The staff said it happens all the time. The email invite doesn’t make it clear you might not be eligible and even if you try to check beforehand it’s not clear what counts as serious or not.