Is Flu Costing Your Business?

Every year more than 7.6 million working days are lost to flu and last winter’s flu epidemic saw record levels of employees contracting the virus resulting in a tangible loss to the UK economy.

The average cost of sickness per employee rose to an average of £570 per person in 2017 compared to £455 per person in 2016 and that figure is expected to increase again this year.

“There is one efficient way to tackle the flu virus,” explains Stephen Pollock, the pharmacist who heads up Weldricks’ flu vaccination service, “and that is to vaccinate your workforce and limit any impact the virus may have on your business.”

Continues Stephen: “Many people associate flu with the colder winter months but it’s a virus that health professionals, doctors and pharmacists track all year round. Observing how the influenza virus develops in the southern hemisphere countries, such as Australia, gives us a vital understanding of what we here in the UK might expect.

“Since flu is highly infectious – it spreads easily through droplets in the air from coughs and sneezes from those who are already infected – you’re highly susceptible if you’re working in an open office environment with other people.

“The good news is, we’re on hand to help! For the second year running we are offering the quadrivalent (quad) influenza vaccine which provides protection against more types of flu than a standard vaccine. We can administer the flu vaccine to people aged over 18 and it couldn’t be easier to organise.

“We can send a qualified Weldricks pharmacist to your office to set up a clinic and provide the vaccinations on site or we can issue vouchers for your staff to redeem at one of our several vaccination sites across the region; it really is that straightforward to protect the health of your workforce, today.”

Concludes Stephen: “There are also people who are deemed ‘at risk’ from flu including those aged 65 and over, individuals with chronic respiratory illnesses such as asthma, chronic heart, liver, kidney or neurological disease, diabetes, low immunity, pregnant women and carers. Anyone in these groups can get a flu jab, free of charge on the NHS at 38 of our local pharmacies across Doncaster and South Yorkshire.”

For more information on Weldricks’ flu vaccination service contact Stephen via email spollock@weldricks.co.uk