{"id":8609,"date":"2018-12-18T14:02:29","date_gmt":"2018-12-18T14:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stockportccg.nhs.uk\/practicehub\/?p=8609"},"modified":"2018-12-18T14:21:19","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T14:21:19","slug":"santa-urges-over-65s-to-get-their-flu-jab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stockportpracticehub.co.uk\/practicehub\/news\/santa-urges-over-65s-to-get-their-flu-jab\/","title":{"rendered":"Santa urges over 65s to get their flu jab!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Santa won\u2019t get sleighed by flu \u2013 and neither should you<\/strong><\/p>\n

Santa took a break from his grotto duties this week to get his free flu jab and make doubly sure he\u2019s on top-form for the festive season.\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

He popped into Bracondale Medical Centre in Stockport to be vaccinated and is urging his fellow over 65 year olds to follow suit and get their free jab before the flu season gets in full swing.<\/p>\n

People with long-term health conditions, those with a BMI of 40+ and pregnant women are also eligible. Children up to school year five have their vaccination free with a nasal spray through school or at their GP surgery if they are in an \u2018at risk\u2019 group.<\/p>\n

Santa said: \u201cWith all of the world\u2019s children relying on me, I couldn\u2019t take the risk of getting flu at my busiest time of year. I\u2019ve got grotto duties, supervising the elves and then I\u2019ve got a fair bit to do\u00a0on\u00a0Christmas Eve!<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no way I was going to risk getting flu and letting everyone down, so I popped in to see Dr Cath Briggs and she sorted my jab.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI was a touch apprehensive but I barely felt a thing and I was back making wishes come true within a few minutes. I feel safe in the knowledge that I won\u2019t be coming down with a nasty bout of flu in the next couple of weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Briggs, who is also the GP Clinical Chair for Stockport CCG said: \u201cGetting flu is \u2018snow\u2019 joke, especially at this time of year when people are so busy and have plans with family and friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting it would absolutely ruin anyone\u2019s Christmas and for certain people, in the at risk groups, catching it can be really dangerous.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo when the big man said he wanted to come to our GP practice to get his flu vaccination done we were pleased to have him here. He\u2019s a very important guy and people rely on him. We were glad to have done our bit to ensure everyone has a Christmas cracker.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councillor Tom McGee, Stockport Council\u2019s Cabinet Member for Health said \u201cDue to national issues regarding this year\u2019s supply of vaccine for over 65s, uptake of the vaccine is currently down on last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlu can be potentially life threatening and result in hospitalisation in older people and those in \u201cat risk groups. All GPs and pharmacies have now received additional supplies of the vaccine so please get your vaccination as soon as possible and don\u2019t risk flu ruining your Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information on the flu vaccine please visit <\/strong>www.nhs.uk\/fluvaccine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To get your flu vaccine please contact your GP Practice or visit your local pharmacy.<\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Santa urges over 65s to get their jab done before flu season gets going.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":590,"featured_media":8715,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[195,9,63],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stockportpracticehub.co.uk\/practicehub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8609"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stockportpracticehub.co.uk\/practicehub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stockportpracticehub.co.uk\/practicehub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stockportpracticehub.co.uk\/practicehub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/590"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stockportpracticehub.co.uk\/practicehub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8609"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.stockportpracticehub.co.uk\/practicehub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8716,"href":"https:\/\/www.stockportpracticehub.co.uk\/practicehub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8609\/revisions\/8716"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stockportpracticehub.co.uk\/practicehub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stockportpracticehub.co.uk\/practicehub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stockportpracticehub.co.uk\/practicehub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stockportpracticehub.co.uk\/practicehub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}