in thinking that our children are.....

[stuffthenonsense]

the only group in society who are unable to receive the flu vaccine.

i know there is a NHS shortage, but as a worried well, no matter what the papers say, i CAN get vaccinated elsewhere, my children cannot! at least i have yet to find anywhere that will do it.

i believe in vaccinations. i know there are plenty on here who do not, but i feel that for the majority of cases the side effects of a vaccine are nothing compared to the effects of the disease in question.

i have been waiting to hear from my gp to see if my youngest at least is able to have it and have just been told no, minutes after hearing on the news that a little girl with no underlying conditions has died. such a tragic waste!

so, am i being unreasonable and paranoid or should our children have as much right to the vaccine as anyone else?

Go to your local chemist and pay for it.

Asda do them for around £6

they were telling us on the news not to buy it if we can help it, as it leaves GPs short for peopel on the at risk list.

Unless your child has bronchitis, asthma or any other illness I have trouble spelling, I wouldn't worry about it.

none of the chemists round here will vaccinate children!

"should our children have as much right to the vaccine as anyone else?" Nobody has the right to demand a vaccination, any more than you can demand other medicines like antibiotics. If you are in one of the high risk groups you should be able to get it on the NHS.

Yes some adults are managing to pay for it from pharmacies, but if the pharmacy has chosen not to stock child versions, that's up to them. They are operating as a shop and can decide what they want to stock (or their group decides what to take in a contract from pharmaceutical companies). You don't have an automatic right to be able to walk into a shop and demand something they don't stock, as a "right".

fine, so swap the word 'right' to 'access' then. shouldnt our children be able to access the jab as easily as anyone else

I think the idea is that you buy it from the Chemist and then take it to the Dr who administers it.

ooh really? hmm that i would definately do. thanks mutznutz. will phone pharmacy and gp to see

What really needs to happen is for somebody to stop the media over reporting and hyping things up rather than everyone getting vaccinated.

I don't want to hijack your thread but just wondered- dd (then 9) had swine flu 18 months. She had the anti-virals. I had it at the same time but didn't have them. What is the general view on whether it would be worth trying to vaccinate dd?

Sorry- should read '18 months ago'!

to an extent i agree with you peppa but flu, swine or otherwise, is a killer. i have watched two people i love dearly die of pneumonia and that is a truly awful thing and is a complication of flu. i would like to see all people being offered the vaccine, obviously the nhs cannot afford to fund that, but if everyone who could pay did (as is now the case with those who choose to go to a chemist and get it done) then as a guess i would think the nhs might cope with the take up. people do pay for vaccines currently through their gp (yellow fever etc) so systems must already be in place to charge

Yes I agree ... but if it was done in a normal calm way a bit like at risk groups already get it or babies get other injections would be so much sipler. Really wish the media would stop it!