Informal carers urged to get winter vaccines
Dear Sir, the Public Health Agency (PHA) is calling on informal carers to come forward for vaccination against flu and Covid-19 ahead of winter.
For carers, getting vaccinated gives better protection against severe illness and hospitalisation, meaning that they are better able to continue providing the vital care that is required of them over the winter.
Hence, the PHA, is urging carers to get ready for winter by taking up the offer of free vaccination.
Eligible at-risk people know the importance of getting their winter vaccinations to help protect themselves, but we must not forget the informal carers who care for them.
It is every bit as important that they too get their winter vaccinations.
Carers are people who provide help and support to a family member or a friend who may not be able to manage without this help because of frailty, illness or disability.
Carers can be adults caring for other adults, parents caring for children who are ill or have a disability, or young people who care for another family member.
Informal carers play a crucial role in supporting our healthcare system by caring for their family member or friend. It’s vital that they take steps to protect themselves from illness, meaning that they are better able to continue providing the care that is required of them over the winter, as well as reducing the risk to their friend or family member.
Vaccines are the most effective way to prevent or reduce the impact of infectious diseases as they teach our immune system how to recognise and fight viruses. Being vaccinated against both viruses will not only help to protect you and those around you from flu and COVID-19.
Vaccination for carers is available through GPS, pharmacies and trust clinics. Find out more at www. nidirect.gov.uk/wintervaccines Yours faithfully,
Dr. Brid Farrell, Deputy Director of Public Health at the PHA
SWAH emergency surgical services. It’s all in the word ‘EMERGENCY’.
We in the west do not have the luxury of adequate infrastructure, no motorway, no dual carriageway and no train. If an emergency happens we depend on an already overburdened NIAS (ambulance service) and timely access to our local ED.
Lives depend on emergency surgery within the SWAH. Whether it is a child with a burst appendix or a bleed from an RTA (road traffic accident), the nearest facility is over an hour from here and that’s without maybe a longer journey from the furthest part of this county.
We have an expensive PFI building here, it needs to be utilised effectively for our NHS needs.the community here deserves the same equality of access as anywhere else in Northern Ireland to emergency services.
We believe this has happened because of poor workforce planning on behalf of the western trust. They need our emergency general surgeons to ensure their own emergency rotas are compliant. We call on Fermanagh District Council to work with all the local health trade unions, to demand that the WHSCT, the Health minister/ DOH and the Royal College of Surgeons take responsibility to explore options and ensure that we, in a rural part of the country, are safe and have local and timely access to emergency surgery in this state of the art facility.
We deserve better!
Yours faithfully,
Fermanagh Trades Council