Doctor reveals struggle against flu with cheap vaccine as outbreak cripples NHS

A DOCTOR has revealed that GPs using a cheaper flu vaccine may have exacerbated the crippling outbreak this winter.

By Tom Towers /

It has claimed 155 lives since October as thousands are admitted to hospitals across Britain.

These shocking figures come amid a nationwide outbreak of sinister influenza A and B strains, including the potent “Aussie flu” and highly contagious “Japanese flu”.

To deal with the outbreak, doctors were equipped with both quadrivalent and trivalent vaccines.

However, Dr Dinesh Silva believes GPs often opted to treat adults with the trivalent jab – which does not protect against the B strain and costs about £2 less.

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He told Daily Star Online: “The quadrivalent protects against influenza B and the trivalent does not confer that sort of protection.

“A significant proportion of the patients attending hospital are coming down with influenza B.”

Dinesh believes cash-strapped NHS bosses were motivated by finance in assigning the vaccines.

He added: “I think the sad fact is that cost does come down to it and it’s evidence based. When doctors make decisions they weigh up all the pros and cons of which vaccines to use.

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    “The influenza B is meant to be more prevalent in kids so that's why this one (trivalent) was chosen for the elderly and more vulnerable.

    “The rationale was that if you can stop it in the kids the adults won’t get it. It’s not an exact science and they go by projections, that’s why the decisions are made.

    “The trivalent one was about £2 cheaper than the quadrivalent one.”

    Three clinical commissioning groups were previously told by NHS England to “select the product with the lowest purchase price to the NHS and not purchase the quadrivalent vaccine for adults”, the Health Service Journal reports.

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      “The rationale was that if you can stop it in the kids the adults won’t get it”

      Dr Dinesh Silva

      Even with the correct vaccine, doctors will struggle to protect their patients against the mutating virus in future.

      Dinesh added: “I think the real issue is that the nature of the flu virus is that the vaccine does not confer 100% protection against the flu.

      “Even if you have the flu jab it only confers about 20 or 30% efficacy against getting the out and out symptoms of it.”

      Dinesh is a GP partner at Connaught Surgery in Palmers Green, north London, and co-founder of Doctaly, a new service that enables doctors to develop a private practice in their NHS surgery.

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        Among the flu’s victims was tragic Bethany Walker, an 18-year-old student who was struck down with the illness at her home in Applecross, Scotland.

        Daily Star Online has contacted NHS England for comment.

        It comes after the harrowing ordeal of a woman who survived Aussie flu emerged.