Bristol care workers get swine flu jab
About 5,000 members of staff from the city council and Bristol Community Health are being inoculated against the H1N1 virus.
Frontline employees providing personal care to vulnerable people, including home care staff and those working in residential homes and district nurses, are being given the jabs as part of the national vaccination programme.
They are being vaccinated to ensure that staff are less likely to be struck down by flu so services can continue to run as normal.
If people who require additional care cannot stay in their homes or residential services, they could place additional strain on hospitals at a time when they are preparing for more patients as a result of the flu pandemic.
They were not forced to have the vaccinations but were urged to consider them.
These staff are normally offered seasonal flu jabs but, because managing swine flu would increase the usual pressures of the winter season, emergency planners are pushing the vaccination against H1N1.
Jim Gillman, Bristol City Council senior civil protection officer, said: "We are trying to make sure that our frontline services are going to continue to operate through what is likely to be a difficult flu season.
"We have got about 5,000 people who meet the criteria in Bristol and have worked as hard as we can to get as many of those vaccinated as possible.
"It is not compulsory, no-one has been forced to have the vaccination.
"We are encouraging staff strongly because this is one way we can try and ensure services keep running and we can protect vulnerable service users.
Louise Anderson, a city council employee at Alder Court very sheltered housing in Whitchurch, was among the people to receive their vaccines yesterday.
She said: "At first I wasn't sure about having the vaccine because I don't tend to get very ill. But then I thought about the residents who are coming in and out of the office all the time so thought I should.
"Lots of information was sent to us with details about myths and explaining what the vaccine involves."
Chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson announced yesterday that there had been a "small increase" in the number of people contracting swine flu, with an estimated 84,000 new cases in the last week.
He said the rise, which was smaller than in previous weeks, could have been a result of the half-term break.
There has been a "small increase" in the number of people contracting swine flu, chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson said.
National figures show that 848 people are in hospital with the virus, with 172 of those in intensive care.
The number of swine flu deaths in the UK is now 154.
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