Date: Wednesday 31 March 2021
Time: 2.00pm – 3.30pm GMT

The current COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the fore all too starkly the importance of ensuring people of all ages have access to immunisation, especially now that the roll-out of a COVID-19 vaccine has begun.

However, the uptake of adult immunisation is not consistent across the UK and recent uptake data has demonstrated a decline in vaccine uptake among the over 65s.

Our “Safeguarding Healthy Ageing” report, commissioned by MSD, made three main recommendations on how the UK healthcare system could be optimised to improve immunisation rates among older adults:

• Take a life course approach
• Utilise data effectively
• Get commissioning right

This working group meeting focussed on translating our second recommendation into action. In particular, it explored how we can improve access to standardised data to ensure the better interoperability of systems and better mechanisms to make people aware of immunisations they are eligible for.

MSD initiated and fully funded this activity.