Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust wins national 'flu fighter' award
LIVERPOOL Community Health NHS Trust
was among 6 winners at the annual national NHS flu fighter awards. The
panel of judges, including the editor of Nursing Times magazine Jenni Middleton,
said that the team's remarkable efforts will be promoted across the Country to
inspire similar work. The awards are part of the NHS flu fighter campaign
run by NHS Employers, which has helped increase the number of frontline NHS
staff having flu vaccinations by 182,000 since it began in 2011. The
Liverpool team won in the 'Innovative flu fighter campaign'
category against stiff competition from throughout England and Wales.
Judges noted that the Liverpool team's 'ImmuniseYourSelfie'
digital campaign really got people talking about the flu vaccination. Staff from
across the Trust posed for 'selfies' and highlighted their reasons
for getting the jab. The trust's Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts were
fully utilised to increase awareness with daily planned updates, including flu
facts and public health themed posts coinciding with seasonal events such as
Movember and Halloween. Over 90 #fluselfie entries were generated, as well as
over 400 staff mentions of #ImmuniseYourSelfie on Twitter, over 500 retweets and
over 300 Facebook posts, assisting the trust in achieving over 65% uptake of flu
vaccinations.
Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, presented the award and said:-
"This team has done fantastic work to help make the NHS an even safer
place for staff, patients, and anyone they come into contact with. More than a
million people use the NHS every 36 hours and many can be very vulnerable to
flu. So it's great that the majority of NHS staff find time in their busy days
to seek out these voluntary vaccinations."
There have been year on year increases in NHS staff flu vaccinations since flu
fighter launched nationally in 2011. At the end of the last winter 541,000
(54.9%) of frontline NHS staff were choosing to be vaccinated, compared with
359,000 (34.7%) in 2010/11; the winter before the national campaign began.
The vaccinations are not mandatory, but help to protect staff, their friends,
family and patients from flu. flu fighter provides information and resources to
help the NHS promote vaccinations locally and make them more convenient to have.
More details are at:- NHSEmployers.Org/Flufighter, #flufighter and on Facebook.
