Having chronic fatigue (CFS), I should be able to get a free flu vaccine every year but I don’t!
Why? Because doctors, nurses and other people read the eligibility but as they don’t see CFS/ME written there, they say you aren’t eligible. YOU ARE!
CFS/ME are neurological conditions which DO qualify for a free flu vaccine. The sad truth is that many don’t realise it is so even though it says you get free flu vaccines if you have a neurological condition, it doesn’t list the neurological conditions so instead of researching, they just say you aren’t eligible!
CFS/ME are classed as neurological conditions, even by the NHS itself, but also SNOMED (the system used by GPs in England) and the World Health Organisation in section G93:3 of ICD10.
In “The Green Book of Immunisation” which the NHS use as a guide to know who to vaccinate, it clearly shows that people with neurological conditions are at a higher risk so qualify for the free flu vaccine.
So why is it so hard to get a flu vaccine free when it clearly shows we qualify?
I wish I knew! It is clearly there in black and white that CFS/ME are neurological conditions and neurological conditions qualify for free flu vaccines, and if you read any CFS/ME medical website, they all tell you the same as I am here. We do qualify. So many people have had to fight to get a vaccine they qualify for. Many of us have been told no.
Every year people fight to get the free flu vaccine that we are supposed to get free which uses energy they do not have as CFS/ME is massively energy limiting which is the main feature of the condition!
I even emailed the NHS and they linked the green book above, which even states that neurological conditions get free vaccines, but the person I spoke to clearly didn’t read my email which had all the evidence there, nor did they read the link they sent me! If they had they would have seen what I said was right.
The NHS has lots of departments and they often don’t seem to communicate well each other so getting the information on the NHS flu vaccine page updated would be nearly impossible.
I have tried and sent lots of emails to various departments but even though it is there in black and white that we are eligible, whoever updates the site with the info won’t do it for anything like this sadly.
Different CFS/ME charities and organisations even give links on how to tell your GP that you should be getting a free flu jab which they shouldn’t have to do! The NHS should be listing this already but instead they won’t so that less people get the flu jab than should as we DO qualify.
Here are multiple places that tells you how to speak to your GP about it and also shows that we do qualify for free flu vaccines:
This shows that they really do not read what you write, nor care what you write as they won’t change a thing, and I think that we should push them about this as every year, CFS/ME patients fight to get a vaccine we should get free and I think that we shouldn’t have to do this.
I think instead that we should push to get the NHS/Government website updated with CFS/ME added.
I really hope that you will help me on this, as I need you and your friends to email them stating that we are eligible and copying the links I have given here as proof.
The email address to use to contact UK Health Security Agency which is [email protected]
Please do email them and just ask that they update the NHS website and Government website as the information misses out CFS/ME and clearly they don’t realise that it is a neurological condition which is eligible for free flu vaccines.
I do recommend that if you have CFS/ME that you email the NHS with the template at the bottom of the page in the hopes of getting the information on the site updated with the correct information showing that CFS/ME does qualify, in the hopes of saving time and energy for many people with this energy limiting chronic illness.
As I always say, I think the NHS is great for day to day easy to sort health issues and with chronic conditions, the NHS seems to fall apart. I haven’t had a single good experience with the NHS and my permanent health issues as you might see from my blog, for over 30 years!
I have experienced malpractice multiple times, years fighting for tests, diagnosis, simple blood tests and for referrals to departments I should have already been referred to but haven’t, even had my head split open in a doctors surgery room. I think the idea is great and brilliant for things like broken arms, injuries, short term health issues, but for lifelong chronic illnesses, I haven’t had a good thing to say I really haven’t.
Here is an email that you can send. I am hoping that if enough people email them, that they will update the information although not sure what our chances are, but we have to try as if they updated the info to correctly show that we are eligible then many of us wouldn’t have to fight to get the free vaccine that we rightly qualify for.
They will most likely reply saying that you are wrong with a link to the green book which is already included in the email to send them, but they don’t usually read much of what you write and they usually think they know best. They don’t. Please do reply back if they do this and tell them that the green book clearly shows that neurological conditions qualify for free flu vaccines and the links below show that CFS/ME are neurological conditions.
I would really love for them to update the information but I doubt they will. This is a shot at making them update it.
Please do send this email!
Just copy and paste it, including the links as it is and send it. You can add any other info if you like or re-word it, but do leave the links and the proof for them to see.
Email to send to [email protected]
I am writing to yourselves to ask that you update the NHS and Government website that CFS/ME qualifies for free flu jabs so that as patients with a severe energy limiting condition don’t have to fight to get what they are eligible for every year.
So many patients with CFS/ME don’t get free flu vaccines even though we are eligible, all because the wording is too vague and some medical professionals don’t realise that CFS/ME are neurological conditions and therefore qualifies for a free flu vaccine because of this.
It clearly states that neurological conditions qualify for free flu vaccines in the NHS Green Book – Chapter 19, page 14.
CFS/ME which is a neurological condition, classified as such by:
- NHS England – https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/clinical-policy/ltc/our-work-on-long-term-conditions/neurological
- SNOMED – https://snomedbrowser.com/Codes/Details/52702003
- The World Health Organisation (WHO) in section G93:3 of ICD10 https://icd.who.int/browse10/2019/en#/G93.3
- People with a chronic neurological disease are eligible for an NHS flu jab (NHS Green Book – Chapter 19, page 14) – https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/931139/Green_book_chapter_19_influenza_V7_OCT_2020.pdf
It is so hard to get a flu vaccine for free even though I qualify as receptionists, nurses and even doctors don’t all know that it is eligible as not everyone realises that CFS/ME are neurological conditions which it is!
The links above also confirm this.
So many of us have to call multiple times every single year, saying the same thing over and over to different people which is extremely difficult seeing as we all have severe fatigue issues! All this to get a flu vaccine.
I would appreciate it if the website and information could be updated to state clearly that patients with CFS/ME are eligible so that so many people with CFS/ME don’t have to fight to get a vaccine that they qualify for.
Please can you forward this onto whoever can action this as it is very important and would help so many people around the country if this could be updated to correctly show that we qualify and therefore save many people lots of time and hassle in the future!
Kind Regards,
