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.

Don’t be ridiculous. Admin staff have contact with other staff, other staff have contact with patients.

Reduced sick leave is good for everyone
Reduced illness in patients reduces burden and mortality.

You sound jealous.

But a lot of people won't. And we need them working so appointments get booked, phones get answered, people get helped so they get the healthcare they need.

FFS ... you are being terribly unreasonable. Frankly, I think the pressure on the NHS would be a lot less, and by default the financial implications, if everyone was offered and encouraged to get free flu and covid jabs to cut down on the spread and resulting issues it causes for the health service.

Interesting to learn.
On the NHS website it says those eligible for a Covid jab are :
Adults over 75
Care home residents for older adults
Immunosuppressed individuals aged 6 months and over.

Nothing about free jabs for the public sector.
I can see the sense in it. But I would also argue there are probably more at risk people who could benefit rather than someone who is a fit and healthy public sector worker who has no contact with the public. Of which there are many such. Some work directly with the public. A lot do not.

This should be on the NHS website.

Jesus Christ. Are you kidding? You can’t be serious.

I work in a factory and the company pays for all employees to have a flu jab.

But by your logic, support staff aren't ... which is again, mad.

You sound slightly unhinged about this

It’s probably the only additional benefit NHS admin staff get. They don’t get free parking, coffee / tea. There’s no bonus or Christmas party or anything like that, no staff discount.

Arguably, if the public sector get a jab, why are some other groups not included?

Not saying the poster did get flu from the vaccine, but her listing her symptoms would tell us nothing about whether or not it was flu she had. Flu can be anything from fatal to totally asymptomatic. The only way she'd know is if she'd done a test.

It’s hardly a Porsche is it? If she works in the NHS she’ll be an environment full of sick people and medics. Even if she’s not in direct contact she’ll be touching the same surfaces as them in staff rooms/cafes/toilets. The danger is not so much that she’ll get it, but that she’ll pass it on to people who are at high risk or front line staff for whom time off work presents a real danger to delivery. The aim is to create as safe and as sterile an environment as possible, and if people are wandering around with flu that that just increases risk for everyone.

Covid is not the flu.

Apologies ! For some reason I think I read a post about Covid jabs up thread. And muddled the two.

I’ve recently had some extremely helpful interactions with NHS admin staff. I’m very glad they weren’t off sick.

So are NHS administrators!!!

Is it just that you hate your SIL? I really can’t understand why else you would be so irate about this.

You really are in the wrong.

If my job wants money spent, my job better pay for that money to be spent.

So you won't mind waiting for your referral letter to the consultant? Your follow up appointment letter? Your post operaitive report?
None of them are important at all

If our admin team went down trust me you would feel it. Just because they aren’t ’patient facing’ does not mean they aren’t bloody well needed.

Who do you think keeps the theatres running? Who do you think co-ordinates it all? Sorts the clinics? The outcomes after? The referrals? Do you really think the consultants have the time for all that😂 our admins are an absolute god send and even when they are on holiday you can tell

If they need them for the benefit of the taxpayer to improve services to NHS patients then of course the cost should ge paid from NHS budgets. Forcing staff to pay for something they need for work isn't ethical and doesn't happen in any decent business. The cost to the NHS will be less than £5 per dose. The cost per admin staff member off sick over winter will be hundreds or sometimes thousands of pounds so it is a sensible use of NHS funds. More employers should do the same - schools that vaccinate their staff would dramatically reduce their costs for sickness cover staff.

That's COVID, not flu

Yes, I posted my apology upthread.

so the admin staff stay in their own quarantined room all day and use separate toilets to the rest of the NHS staff, thus preventing any spread of viruses?

nope

how many times have you been sat in a clinical setting and watched a doctor or nurse walk over to an admin desk and speak to them?

that's one example of an exposure route, then you have people coughing, sneezing in corridors, toilets

the OP is a troll and its a poorly-thought out wind-up that is easily de-constructed using basics of airborne and fomite virus transmission... that was re-taught to everyone in real time during the pandemic

This shows very little knowledge of how the nhs works. Admin staff have contact with medics and nurses, touch surfaces in the workplace setting, breathe the same air etc. they can absolutely indirectly pass flu onto vulnerable people. You need to direct your anger at much bigger issues and waste in the nhs. And I work in it.

You’re obviously just being a twat. The NHS can’t run without admin staff. And it costs nothing like £15 for them to give jabs to their staff. Give your head a wibble wobble. 🤣🤣

So you want it to be made compulsory and require employees to pay for it. What penalty would you impose on those who refuse to get it? Sack them?

Free flu jabs are part of the total reward package many employers offer. It’s a cost effective benefit that demonstrates corporate social responsibility, care for employees well being = increased engagement.

Additionally economies of scale can be achieved in both the purchasing of the vaccine, paying the person who administers the vaccine and the time lost by the employee attending the appointment. Much easier to slip out during the working day rather than an appointment outside the workplace,

It is also preventative, not just for the employee, but their colleagues and most importantly vulnerable patients. It not only reduces sick absence but also the spread of flu.

YABVVU

Another reason for having it via NHS is that it's easier to access, either via Occupational Health (who sometimes travel around a hospital site to ensure easy access), or in the community a nurse will be allocated to administer it, so staff do not have to leave work for, say half a day, to access it elsewhere.

Sorry I didn't see that, my mistake