Flu jab - do I have to pay if my Maternity Exempt certificate is still valid until January 2013?

[Mocheenee]

Hi,
I don't wnt to sound 'tight' but I am currently on the last 3 months of maternity leave, which is unpaid. Therefore we are struggling with money at the moment. I really want to have a flu jab, but my doctors receptionist tells me as I am no longer vulnerable (which I appreciate) I have to go to a supermarket and pay to have a flu jab there. Now several moms tell me I should be able to have it free at my Doctors as my Medical Exempt certificate is valid until middle of January. Does anyone know who is right? I don't want to call the doctors back to argue unless I know I am in the right... Any help please !!

Is it not free prescriptions only though and not free anything?

If your GP thinks its medically necessary then he'll prescribe it and you wouldn't have to pay but I wouldn't have thought you could have anything you fancied free when it's not needed.

Prescribed medication is free until your baby is 12 months.

But the flu jab is not routinely offered to everyone, only people considered at risk - eg people with asthma, elderly, pregnant.

If there is no medical reason that you need the flu jab then you can choose to buy it like anyone else can. Or not, it's your choice.

Hi,
thank you both for your posts. I am happy to pay for it then in that case. It was only because other moms at the school gates had assured me that they had not had to pay themslves that made me question it. Obviously why would you pay for something that you can get for free if struggling for money - which is why I raised the question here...
Strange that they (three of them) were so adament about it insisting they were right - all of them also having had their babies around the same time as me...perhaps their GP is especially generous with their flu stock :)
Oh well, off to Sainsburys I go with my £10 !!! I can't suffer flu again - the man flu alone if my husband catches it off me isn't worth the aggravation...funny how a man can take a day off work and literally stay in bed - yet us women just have to soldier on..well in my house anyway :)

Hi there,

Sorry for those that have said is not ‘free’ when it actually is.

This thread is 5 years old so maybe things have changed a bit