GPs and practice staff won’t be offered autumn Covid-19 booster

GP staff aren’t eligible for the Covid booster vaccine under the autumn 2025 campaign, it has been confirmed by the Government.

The decision is in line with advice from the the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The body recommended that frontline health and social care workers (HSCWs) not be part of the autumn 2025 national programme because the vaccine now ‘has a very limited impact on reducing staff sickness absence’.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DSHC) said the JCVI reviewed scientific evidence on the impact of the Covid-19 vaccination on transmission of the virus from healthcare staff to patients; protection of staff against symptoms of the disease; and staff sickness absences.

It found that: ‘In the current era of high population immunity to Covid-19, additional Covid-19 doses provide very limited, if any, protection against infection and any subsequent onward transmission of infection.’

It explained: ‘For HSCWs, this means that Covid-19 vaccination likely now has only a very limited impact on reducing staff sickness absence’, adding that this means they will be excluded from the upcoming vaccination programme.

The exception is for healthcare staff that fall into other eligibility criteria, for example, because of their own health conditions. They will continue to be offered the vaccine as part of the NHS programme, the DHSC has said. 

Last autumn, GPs and practice staff had been eligible for the Covid booster although there had been confusion around whether this was the case, meaning some staff missed out.

This year’s autumn campaign focuses on groups ‘most vulnerable to serious outcomes from Covid-19 and who are therefore most likely to benefit from vaccination’, said the DHSC.

This includes:

• adults aged 75 years and over
• residents in a care home for older adults
• those aged 6 months and over who are immunosuppressed, as defined in tables 3 and 4 of the Covid-19 chapter of the Green Book.

Meanwhile, a letter sent to practices and PCNs last week from NHS England, has also confirmed seasonal vaccination campaign dates and eligibility for the flu jab (see panel below). Dates for both flu and Covid are aligned, it said, to support co-administration.

It sets out a timetable as follows:

1 September – flu jabs to start for pregnant women and all eligible children. Vaccination in schools should be completed by 12 December 2025.

1 October 2025 – flu jabs to start for all other adult cohorts. This will run until 31 March 2026 although the majority should be completed by the end of November.

1 October 2025 – the Covid-19 programme to start and run until 31 January 2026. The majority should be completed by 19 December 2025.

The National Booking Service will be open for participating sites to post flu and Covid-19 appointments from 18 August 2025 and will be open to the public from 1 September.

All frontline health care workers, including both clinical and non-clinical staff in GP practices who have contact with patients, should be offered a flu vaccine from the start of October, NHS England has previously said.

However, these vaccinations will not qualify for payment or reimbursement, it confirmed.

NHS England has also urged practices to ensure they are delivering the RSV and other vaccinations alongside the seasonal programme and ‘to co-administer vaccines where it is appropriate and clinically safe to do so’.