Winter Safety and Health

Find advice and help on keeping safe and healthy in the winter. This section includes practical safety advice for Christmas and New Year, to help you enjoy festive celebrations.

There is also advice on how to keep warm and well in your home. Find out about the help and support that is available for older and disabled people.

Free Flu Jabs for Over 65s

The NHS recommends flu immunisation for everyone aged 65 years and over. Free flu jabs are available from your GP surgery if you are in a vulnerable high risk group.

Flu can be very serious for certain groups of people who are more vulnerable to the effects of flu, which can lead to more serious illnesses such as bronchitis and pneumonia.

The flu is not a severe cold. It is clever. It continually evolves and mutates, so this year’s virus may be different from last year’s.

If You Knew About Flu, You'd Get the Jab

If you suffer from chronic illnesses such as asthma or diabetes, or you are 65 or over, you are especially at risk. Contact your GP for this year’s free flu jab.

The flu jab is the best protection against what is known as seasonal flu or winter flu. It is a nasty illness, lasting a week to ten days and is transmitted from person to person via coughs and sneezes.

Symptoms include a fever, shivering, severe muscle pains and a headache. It may also cause respiratory symptoms such as a nasty cough, sore throat and a stuffy nose.

Flu is very unpleasant, but for the general healthy population it is a relatively short illness which people recover from quite quickly - this is why the NHS do not offer free flu jabs to everyone.