Public Health Wales (PHW) is encouraging older people in Wales to get themselves vaccinated against flu early this winter.

Patients over 65 years should receive their free vaccination from community pharmacies and GP surgeries as soon as possible as part of the annual Beat Flu immunisation initiative, said PHW on Tuesday (November 4).

Last year, only two thirds (68 per cent) of patients aged 65 and over in Wales were vaccinated against flu, PHW said. 

Charity Age Cymru's winter campaign coordinator Rosalyn Williams said it was important for the over-65s to take advantage of their free vaccine because flu was a "serious and potentially debilitating illness".

Catching flu could worsen the symptoms of those with long-term health conditions or lead to a hospital stay - a flu vaccine should be part of the "annual routine" for older people, she stressed.

Carers of older or disabled people should also be vaccinated against flu to ensure those they cared for were protected, Ms Williams added.

Pregnant women and those with long-term conditions were other groups at risk of developing complications from catching flu, and were also eligible for a free vaccination, PHW added.

Director of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) in Wales Jocelyn Parkes urged all at-risk groups, including the over-65s, to visit their local pharmacy or GP to be protected against the "debilitating effects" of the illness. This year, around 250 pharmacies in Wales are offering NHS flu vaccines.

PHW's head of the vaccine preventable diseases programme Richard Roberts stressed that, while for the majority of people catching flu was a minor "albeit unpleasant and inconvenient" experience, patients died every year from complications of contracting the illness.

Last month, Public Health England's head of immunisations Kenny Gibson defended pharmacy's role in giving flu vaccinations after the chair of the BMA's general practitioners' committee in Wales told C+D it was a "limited, rose-tinted view" to claim that vaccination schemes in pharmacies increased patient choice.

	How many patients over 65 have you vaccinated against flu this year?