Vaccine Services

This page relates to ADULT VACCINATIONS.

Routine Immunisation of Children and Young People are provided by Children’s Teams based in the 4 HSCPs and the Community Vaccination Team – please see:

Children and Young People Vaccinations

NHS Lothian HSCP Vaccination Service – ADULTS

Following the transfer of vaccination activity from General Practice in 2022, the Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) in Edinburgh, East, Mid- and West Lothian are now responsible for the provision of the following services:

• The delivery of the routine immunisation schedules for adults.
• The delivery of the routine COVID-19 immunisation schedules as directed by CMO letter to those aged 5 and over.
• The delivery of the routine influenza immunisation programme as directed by CMO letter
• The revaccination of individuals who have received stem cell or solid organ transplant, revaccination of children post chemotherapy.
• The delivery of ‘missed’ childhood vaccinations to individuals who have left school and are aged 24 or under, or missed schools-based programmes and associated mop up programmes hosted by CVT.
• The delivery of additional vaccinations for individuals with underlying medical conditions e.g. post splenectomy.
• Course completions for individuals who have received emergency vaccination post exposure (e.g. Tetanus, Hepatitis B).
• Vaccination in response to outbreak in partnership with Health Protection.

Routine Immunisation of Children and Young People are provided by Children’s Teams based in the 4 HSCPs and the Community Vaccination Team – please see https://apps.nhslothian.scot/refhelp/vaccination-services/

HSCP Vaccination Teams do not provide the following services:

• Vaccinations for Travel https://weare.nhslothian.scot/travelclinics/ 
• Mpox (Monkeypox) https://www.lothiansexualhealth.scot/monkeypox-information/
• Sexual Health Vaccination https://www.lothiansexualhealth.scot/
• Rabies post-exposure treatment. For adults:https://apps.nhslothian.scot/refhelp/guidelines/infectiousdiseases/animal-bites-and-rabies-risk/; for children: discuss with paediatric infectious disease team/ on call paediatric registrar at RHCYP, or Paediatric Emergency team at RHCYP
• Certain urgent vaccinations (e.g. HepB, HepA, measles) in the context of an outbreak investigation by the Health Protection Team
• Private vaccination requests – (should direct to private provider)
• New vaccination programmes not yet agreed by CMO
• Vaccination requests not originally covered by the GMS contract 
• Selective immunisation programmes such as:
  • BCG – Covered by Community Vaccination Teams
  • Pertussis & flu during pregnancy – covered by Maternity Services
  • Hepatitis B for babies born to Hepatitis B infected mothers – covered by 0-5 Vaccination Team.

​Routine Vaccinations

For vaccinations which form part of the routine schedule i.e. age-based childhood vaccination programme, flu, Covid, shingles and pneumococcal, it is not necessary for clinicians to submit a referral form.  Eligible patients are identified based on their age or clinical coding at the start of each programme, with refreshed cohort files being supplied to the board by NES every 12 weeks for pneumococcal.  If the patient’s clinical coding is correct, they will be called forward.

Please note that the routine programme for shingles and pneumococcal is deprioritised during the delivery of the seasonal COVID-19 / flu programme.

Routine Immunisation for Adults

(For childhood and young people’s immunisations – please see https://apps.nhslothian.scot/refhelp/vaccination-services/)

NHS Lothian is responsible for organising pneumococcal, shingles and flu vaccinations for its eligible population and is also responsible for contacting eligible groups to invite them to receive a vaccination.

Please note that the routine vaccination of shingles and pneumococcal is de-prioritised during the delivery of the flu / COVID-19 Programme.

Please see the Green Book for schedules for routine adult immunisations (chapter 11):

Immunisation against infectious disease – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

COVID-19 Vaccination for Adults

NHS Lothian is responsible for delivering the COVID-19 Vaccination to eligible groups.

​HPV Vaccines

Please see the paediatric vaccination page for further detail about the HPV programme.

Missed Childhood Immunisations

Please see https://apps.nhslothian.scot/refhelp/vaccination-services/

Individuals who have left school and have missed childhood immunisations can self-refer for these up to the day before their 25th birthday by contacting the NHS Lothian Vaccination Helpline 0300 790 6296.

Additional Vaccines for Individuals with Underlying Medical Conditions

Referral forms are not required for patients in certain groups to be offered the pneumococcal or flu vaccine.  If clinical coding is updated in GP clinical records, patients will be called forward routinely for vaccination by NHS Lothian.

For information regarding these specific groups, see Green Book (chapters 7 and 25): Immunisation