To think free flu jabs for NHS admin staff is ridiculous??

[thisisjustridiculous]

My SIL is admin staff in the NHS, she has no patient contact and no real contact with medical staff, beyond half an hour a week.

She’s just got a free flu jab! AIBU to think this is disgusting? It must cost the NHS so much, admin staff should have to pay. I agree that frontline staff should get it for free to protect the vulnerable but admin staff shouldn’t.

Really? Do the maths. £15 for a vaccine or alternatively 2 weeks off work. The NHS can't afford not to give everyone protection, all employers should it's in their best interest to keep staff healthy and in work - it's a no brainer.

🫣 oh god

My private employer pays for mine, and my role is far less critical to society than NHS workers. I’d rather my tax money is spent on a £15 vaccine than hundreds or thousands covering their sick pay when they’re off with the flu. I can’t understand anyone who would have any other logic.

Ffs. No it’s not ridiculous because if admin staff contract flu and go off sick then the whole dept is fucked.

yes got the sarcasm :-)
online communication is tricky at times and not my forte!
re the admin and AI - from what I’ve seen it’s the band 2’s that are being decimated and non medical admin (eg they had a call centre. That’s gone now. All done by AI)

My old work (private sector) used to pay for ours. I imagined it saved in sick days.

What a horrible post. Why should they have to pay? How nasty must your mind be to resent the NHS paying for ALL of its staff for the flu jags from clinical to non clinical. So that includes admin staff, estates, cleaners etc etc. All of which are necessary to running the NHS, especially in winter!

Does everyone not get a free flu jab with it being the nhs anyway?

Those admin staff will probably have paid many times over in NI and tax for their flu jabs.

Lots of enlightened employers provide all their staff with free flu jabs.

The flu jab doesn’t prevent flu or colds. It just reduces the risk of catching flu by 40%.

The NHS will have worked out that it saves them money. A lot of employers offer free flu vaccines to their staff for the same reason. It’s all about the money.

Administering your nhs care is how it gets done! You have no idea how much the admin staff are relied on. A secretary off for a week could delay care for quite a number of patients simply by not getting the clinic letters typed and sent on.

All workers pay NI and tax, not just NHS staff.

Please tell me this is a joke. It is, isn't it? Phew.

Your lack of critical thinking is astounding

And the cost to the NHS will be minimal anyway as they use their staff to administer it, I'm a Psychiatric nurse who runs peer flu vaccination clinics every year for staff in my building so they aren't even away from their job for any great length of time!

Take up arms against generational benefits families with 27 kids who have never worked or contributed to tax.

or take it up with me if you like, a pregnant woman who works from home and could easily afford to pay but didn’t and had it on the taxpayer 🤣

So it merely reduces the risk ... righteho.

What a weird take. What’s it to you????

Her taxes are paying for it.

Many employers offer their staff free flu jabs because they judge that this costs them less than having staff off sick with flu. The NHS is no different in this respect. In fact, the decision is easier for the NHS than for almost any other employer: on the cost side, it is in a unique position to provide the jabs at very low unit cost - they employ a lot of skilled needle-wielders and have arrangements in place to buy doses in bulk for their clinical staff. And on the other side of the equation, if there is a large-scale flu epidemic, then that is precisely the time when the NHS can least afford for staff - including admin staff - to be unavailable.

If she is off, it means a backlog of telephone calls/paperwork/patient support. I worked in NHS admin for a while and part involved making calls to specialist hospitals to check if there was a bed available, if so, then arranging for an ambulance to transport that patient alongside any important information the Consultant/Registrar/SHO wanted passed on. Surely something like that is important.

@thisisjustridiculous , admin staff come in to regular contact with front line staff who are in regular contact with vulnerable people. There, did that sort it out for you?

I disagree with you. I don't think you have thought it through. What if the urgent appointments admin staff are off sick for a week with flu and anyone needing an urgent referral for cancer diagnosis or anything serious has an even longer agonising wait. Admin staff are crucial.

Your view of what is and isn’t ‘disgusting’ needs some reassessment. Get a grip.