Michelle Falconer, screening and immunisation coordinator, Commissioning Directorate, NHS England.
Vaccines save lives — but the cost procured by the Government is over £300 million a year. Last calendar year, vaccines wasted through incidents in primary care had a value at list price of £3.7 million. This figure represents vaccines that were disposed as a result of both avoidable and nonavoidable incidents, including failureto store them properly. This does not include any flu vaccine wastage (other than vaccines from the children’s programme), or any other centrally procured vaccine which Public Health England (PHE) supply and do not collect data on (e.g. rabies vaccine) (personal communication with Chris Lucas, vaccine supply team, PHE).
Before any members of the general public jet-off for an exotic holiday this summer, there is one person they will have to see first — and it’s not their travel agent. The majority of UK travel health and immunisation advice is provided by practice nurses, and with the growth of foreign travel this is fast becoming an integral part of the service we deliver.
The use of compression hosiery is commonplace in the community. Traditionally, compression hosiery has been used to prevent leg ulceration, including prevention of the recurrence of leg ulcers and skin breakdown after ulcers have healed (Nelson and Bell-Syer, 2012).
It’s that time of year again where Christmas is a distant memory and the longer evenings start to bring thoughts of summer. Unfortunately, the first shoots of spring also stir the fear of allergies in many of us. Allergies have become a widespread phenomenon and at any one time can affect one-in-four people in the UK. Common allergic conditions include hay fever, asthma, atopic eczema and food allergies, and many of these become worse in the spring/summer months.
