Protecting our service users from flu - Rhys Jones

Dr Rhys Jones from our eating disorders service tells us why he's had his flu jab.

Hello, my name is Rhys Jones and I’m a Consultant Psychiatrist at the Yorkshire Centre for Eating Disorders (YCED) in Leeds.

For me, having the flu would be miserable and would likely have a big impact on both my work and home life. But for the service users I work with every day, catching the flu could be devastating, and this is one of the main reasons why I’ve had my flu jab.

At YCED we treat individuals with eating disorders, namely Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa. These conditions can have major physical health complications including bone marrow suppression where service users can become immunocompromised and extremely vulnerable to infection. To put it simply, this means they are more prone to catching bugs, and when they do, they can become very ill, very quickly often taking longer to recover from their infection once they get over the initial acute infective stage. When this happens it can really hold people back in terms of their recovery from their eating disorder and in some cases can even prove fatal.

It is for these reasons that many of our team recognise the importance of the flu vaccination programme and every flu season it’s always at the forefront of our minds. It is something that we regularly talk about with our service users but also amongst staff in both clinical and non-clinical settings. We all have a responsibility to protect our service users and make sure that our colleagues understand why they should have the flu jab. For those who want to find out more, there’s some handy information provided by NHS Employers here.