BACKGROUND: General practices undertake annual immunization campaigns to protect susceptible @entity1 against @entity683 . Many practices, however, do not adopt effective approaches and there is great variation in the immunization rates achieved. This study aimed to assess the attitudes of primary care staff to the annual immunization programme, the obstacles they face, and possible reasons for the wide variation in immunization rates. METHOD: A semi-structured questionnaire survey of general practice groups in Salford _Trafford during winter 1997-1998 was carried out, a total of 104 practices. RESULTS: Respondents perceived @entity683 vaccine to be effective (93.2 per cent), well received by @entity1 (91.7 per cent) and without significant side-effects (83.6 per cent). The annual immunization programme was seen as being necessary (91.8 per cent), cost-effective (76.7 per cent), reducing hospital admissions (82.2 per cent), but very time consuming (64.4 per cent). Practices were more likely to target @entity1 specified in the Chief Medical Officer's guidelines; however, most (98.6 per cent) targeted the over-75s before their inclusion in the guidelines, and many (61.6 per cent) targeted the over-65s. Practices did not always use the most effective methods of contacting @entity1 , primarily relying on posters (97.3 per cent), opportunistic contacts (95.9 per cent) and reminders on prescriptions (83.6 per cent), rather than letters (39.7 per cent) and telephone calls (11.0 per cent). Practices identified several common obstacles to immunization, relating to the cost and administrative burden of the annual immunization programme, difficulty identifying high-risk @entity1 , and public beliefs about @entity683 and @entity683 vaccine. CONCLUSIONS: Although generally positive towards @entity683 immunization, practice staff differ in their ability to cope with, and the appropriateness of their response to, the pressures of the annual immunization programme. Additional support and co-operation from the Department of Health, Health Authorities and pharmaceutical companies could remove some of the obstacles to immunization of high-risk @entity1 .

Obstacles to XXXX immunization in primary care.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['patients'] @entity683 :: ('MESH:D007251', 'Disease') :: ['influenza']
@entity683 :: (MESH:D007251,Disease) :: ['influenza']
