Each year, flu season places significant pressure on medical practices across England, with thousands of patients relying on timely vaccination to help protect them during the winter months.
By targeting these key groups, the national flu vaccination programme helps reduce winter pressures across health services while supporting better outcomes for patients. With programme sign-up due by 31 July 2026 and flu season set to begin in September, practices are already working within a narrow timeframe to prepare.
Early planning will be essential to ensure vaccination activity runs smoothly, efficiently and with minimal disruption to day-to-day operations. With that in mind, here are some practical ways to help make sure your practice is flu season ready.
In 2025 alone, the NHS delivered more than 18.5 million flu vaccinations to eligible cohorts, supporting those most at risk of serious illness. This includes people aged 65 and over, individuals under 65 with underlying health conditions and eligible children.
Practices face a variety of pressures during this time, where inbound calls, appointment demand and admin tasks spike simultaneously. All while maintaining routine services and managing the everyday healthcare needs of their patients. Sending reminders early helps to inform patients while ensuring that they have ample time to book their vaccination. Patients who receive communications early are more likely to book in advance, helping to spread demand more evenly and reduce last-minute pressure.
The most popular way to send reminders is by letter – with 81% of practices in London alone using them, compared to email at 7%. Letters provide a tangible, lasting prompt that can be kept in the home, making them extremely effective. They offer space for clear, detailed information, while their formal and trusted nature can help reinforce the importance of booking and attending these appointments.
Letters also help reach patients who may have limited digital access or are less likely to engage with digital communications, offering a more inclusive approach. By using a communication method that works across different patient cohorts, practices can reduce the need to send multiple reminders through different channels – helping to save valuable administrative time while still maximising patient engagement.
Set Up Templates
Have your invitation and reminder letters prepared before the season starts. By saving these templates within your clinical system ahead of time, mailings can be generated and sent in minutes – reducing admin time and ensuring communications are delivered promptly.
Organise Patient Cohorts
Segment patient contact information into eligible groups (65+, clinically at-risk individuals and children) before the season starts. This enables more targeted and relevant communications, helping practices invite the right patients, at the right time, while managing clinic capacity more effectively.
Schedule Your Mailings
Whether planned two weeks or two months in advance, pre-scheduled mailings help reduce administrative workload and enable practice teams to focus their time on delivering clinics rather than managing communications during this peak period.
The Docmail Print Driver is our hybrid mail solution that’s downloaded to your desktop free of charge. It acts in the same way as a standard office printer but instead re-routes your documents to us, where we can then print, enclose and despatch your communications the next day. Designed specifically with medical practices in mind, and having been used by over 75% of practices across the UK, it supports both individual and bulk patient mailings.
Perfect for the flu season, Docmail offers the option to schedule mailings 28 days in advance, and users can use pre-set print profiles (which automatically input all print options – such as black and white or colour, single-sided or double-sided) to save time on repeat mailings. Users can also send documents directly from their clinical system, including SystmOne and EMIS, with reporting automatically feeding back into patient records.
- Secretary, Menston and Guiseley Practice
- Practice Manager, High Mill Medical Practice
– Secretary, Bingley Medical Practice
For more than 17 years, we’ve supported medical practices in delivering effective and engaging flu communications that help drive patient awareness and vaccination uptake.
As an approved supplier on the NHS Shared Business Services and HealthTrust Europe frameworks, practices can have confidence that they are partnering with a secure and trusted provider.
Practices need reliable support during the flu season, particularly when teams are managing increased patient demand, tight deadlines and essential vaccination communications. At CFH, this is something we are proud to provide.
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