Visiting an aged care home? Time for a flu shot!
Victor Asher, Bupa Bellarine Lakes resident explains why he thinks it’s important all visitors to aged care homes are vaccinated against the flu.
From Friday 1 May, anyone entering aged care homes around Australia, including our 72 Bupa homes, will need to be vaccinated against the flu.
We believe these Government rules are an important step to try to keep infections out of our care homes and protect our residents as much as possible.
This means visitors, employees, contractors or any other health workers entering our homes will all need to provide evidence of their up-to-date flu vaccination.
This could be in a letter or statement from a health practitioner or an immunisation history statement available from Medicare online or the Express Plus Medicare mobile app.
There are a few medical reasons accepted by the Government for not having the flu vaccine. These are:
- Previous anaphylactic reaction to influenza vaccinations;
- Those who have had Guillain-Barré Syndrome following previous flu vaccinations; or
- People on check point inhibitor drugs for cancer treatment.
Anyone who is unable to be vaccinated for medical reasons will need to provide detailed evidence.
We all have a role to play in protecting the health and safety of our aged care residents, so please, do your bit and get your flu shot.
