For employers, HR and travel bookers
Corporate flu jabs and business travel vaccinations for employers across Trafford, Manchester and Cheshire
Run an autumn flu clinic at your premises or send staff to us in Timperley, and put your business travellers through a proper pre-travel check before they fly. One account, one invoice, and a pharmacist who picks up the phone.
The short answer
How does a corporate flu and travel vaccination programme work?
You pick the format and we do the rest. For seasonal flu, that means a pharmacist coming to your workplace for a booked session, or staff dropping into our clinic at 250 Stockport Road in Timperley at a time that suits them (open until 9pm Monday to Saturday, 6pm on Sundays). For business travel, it means a destination-based risk assessment for each traveller, the vaccines and antimalarial tablets the trip calls for, and the paperwork, including the yellow fever certificate where a country demands one. Everything is invoiced to your company.
We are a GPhC-registered pharmacy and a registered Yellow Fever Vaccination Centre, looking after employers from Altrincham, Sale and Hale through to central Manchester and Cheshire. This page is for whoever has been asked to sort out the flu jabs, or to make sure the team heading to Lagos is covered, so it sticks to what to book, when, and what a sensible travel-health policy ought to say.
Booking an autumn clinic
Want an on-site flu clinic before the winter peak? Send us three things
Your rough headcount, the site or sites, and two or three preferred dates between late September and November. Our pharmacist brings the vaccine, consent forms, sharps disposal and the emergency kit; you provide a private room with a table and two chairs, and a list of who is expected. Most staff are back at their desk within minutes.
Because we are also a Yellow Fever centre, the same account can cover your travellers. If a group is heading abroad on a project, tell us at the same time and we will book them into the Timperley clinic around their departure dates.
For your travellers
Which vaccines come up most for business travel?
The ones we arrange most often for staff flying for work. What each person needs depends on the country, the length of the posting and their vaccine history: a menu, not a prescription.
Hepatitis A
Food & water
Spread through contaminated food and water. Comes up for most trips to Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Central and South America.
Hepatitis B
Longer stays
For longer postings, anyone who might need medical treatment abroad, and roles with blood or needle exposure. A course of at least three doses.
Typhoid
South Asia & more
Food- and water-borne. Most UK cases are linked to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, so it is a regular for South Asia postings.
Yellow Fever
Entry requirement
A legal entry requirement for some countries and a health recommendation in others. We issue the ICVP on the day; it becomes valid ten days later and lasts for life.
Tetanus, diphtheria & polio
Booster
A combined booster, often advised where medical help may be hard to reach quickly and the last dose was over ten years ago.
Seasonal Flu
Year-round travel
Described as the most frequent vaccine-preventable infection in travellers to the tropics, where flu circulates all year.
Rabies
Remote & rural
A pre-exposure course, usually three doses over 28 days, for postings where treatment after a bite would be hard to reach quickly.
Japanese Encephalitis
Rural Asia
For stays of more than a month or work in rural Asia, particularly near rice fields, wetlands or pig farming.
Meningitis ACWY
Specific trips
Proof of vaccination is required for Hajj and Umrah, given at least ten days before arrival. Also considered for some sub-Saharan Africa postings.
Malaria tablets
Prescription
Not a vaccine. Prescription antimalarial tablets matched to the destination at the consultation, started before departure and continued after return, with bite avoidance.
On-site or in-clinic?
Which flu clinic format suits your workplace?
There is no single right answer, and we will tell you if an on-site visit is not worth it for your numbers. Coming to your premises makes sense when plenty of people are on one site on the same day: a Trafford Park depot or an Altrincham office. Sending staff to us in Timperley suits small teams, shift patterns and hybrid workers who are rarely in together, because each person books an evening or Sunday slot.
- On-site: one session, one quiet room, staff seen in short waves so the working day carries on
- In-clinic: staff book their own slot at Timperley, open until 9pm Monday to Saturday and 6pm on Sundays
- Vouchers: cover home-based or field staff, redeemed against your account so nobody pays personally
- Free on-site parking, and the Timperley Metrolink stop is two stops from Altrincham
Business travellers
How should a company handle pre-travel vaccinations for staff who fly for work?
Treat it as a programme, not a scramble. The trouble usually comes from the frequent flyers and the people posted somewhere unusual: an engineer to an oil and gas site in West Africa, a mining consultant to South America, an NGO worker to a rural clinic in South Asia, a sales team at a trade fair in Dubai. Each needs a risk assessment against current TravelHealthPro guidance for that country, not a generic list. We keep a record for every traveller, so repeat trips need a short review, not a consultation from scratch.
- Ideal lead time is four to six weeks before departure, because some vaccines need more than one dose
- Short notice is still worth it: several vaccines and antimalarial tablets can be given at the last minute
- The yellow fever certificate only becomes valid ten days after the jab, so that trip cannot be left to the final week
- Long or remote postings bring rabies, hepatitis B, Japanese encephalitis and malaria tablets into play
Timing
When should an employer book flu jabs, and who gets them free on the NHS?
Book for the autumn. The NHS programme runs in autumn and winter, with most eligible adults offered their jab from 1 October, and flu in the UK circulates mainly from October to March. The vaccine takes up to 14 days to work, and its strains are updated every year. In practice: confirm dates in September and run the session in October or early November. Some staff will qualify for a free NHS vaccine; a workplace programme is for everyone else.
- NHS-eligible: aged 65 or over, pregnant, certain long-term conditions, main carers, and people living with someone whose immune system is weakened
- Frontline health and social care workers are vaccinated through their own employer under the NHS scheme
- Protection is thought to last at least three to six months, so an October jab covers the winter peak
- Missed the autumn? Ask us anyway; the UK season runs through to March
Vouchers, invoicing and records
How do group bookings, vouchers and invoicing work?
We set your company up as an account once, then everything runs against it. On-site sessions are booked as a block; in-clinic staff give your company name when they book and we tie the appointment to your account instead of taking payment; vouchers work the same way for people who are never on site. You get one itemised invoice and a plain attendance summary: who was vaccinated, who declined, who was referred. Clinical details stay in the pharmacy record.
- Consent taken and recorded individually for every person we vaccinate
- Each employee keeps their own record; travellers also receive the ICVP where yellow fever is given
- A certificate copy goes to the employer only with that employee's agreement
The business case
Does a workplace flu programme really cut sickness absence?
We will not quote you a return-on-investment figure; it depends on your workforce, how much face-to-face contact people have and how bad the season is. What we can say is that flu is not a heavy cold. It comes on within hours, leaves people exhausted and too unwell to carry on as normal, and the germs from coughs and sneezes can live on hands and surfaces for 24 hours. A jab takes minutes; the common side effects are a sore arm, a slightly raised temperature and aching muscles for a day or so.
- Flu absence clusters in the winter months, when an autumn jab is already working
- Anyone with a high temperature is advised to stay at home, so one case can cost days
- Costs are per vaccinated employee, so you only pay for the people who turn up
Policy checklist
What should a corporate travel-health policy cover?
Most companies we work with in Trafford and Manchester have no written policy until something goes wrong: a traveller turned away at a border, or a fever after a posting. Seven things a short policy should say.
Who is told, and when
Name one person who hears about every overseas trip as soon as it is booked, with the trigger set at four to six weeks before departure.
A risk assessment for every trip
Every traveller, every destination, every time, checked against current TravelHealthPro country guidance. A list of vaccines for Nigeria printed three years ago is not a policy.
Malaria is tablets, not a jab
State plainly that there is no travel vaccine for malaria. Tablets are prescribed for the destination, started before departure and continued after return, alongside repellent, nets and covered skin. Say who pays.
Yellow fever: entry rule versus advice
Some countries will not admit your traveller without an ICVP certificate; others simply carry a health risk. Treat the two differently, and check the rule for the exact route, including transit stops.
What the company holds, and what it does not
The employer needs to know who is covered and when certificates or courses are due; it does not need the clinical notes. Hold certificate copies only with consent, store them securely, delete them when no longer needed.
Bites, fevers and the trip home
Tell travellers what to do after an animal bite or scratch abroad: wash the wound and seek help quickly, even if vaccinated. Anyone ill in the weeks after returning should mention the trip to whoever sees them.
Insurance and evacuation
Vaccines reduce risk; they do not remove it. Confirm travel health insurance that covers the work being done, and how a medical evacuation would be arranged from a remote site.
FAQ
Employer questions about flu clinics and business travel
Can staff who qualify for a free NHS flu jab just have that instead?
What do we need to arrange for an on-site session?
What side effects should we warn staff about?
Can the COVID-19 vaccine be given at the same session?
How much notice does a business traveller need?
Who pays for work-related travel vaccines, the employee or the business?
Does a flu programme count towards our duty of care?
What about staff who are pregnant, immunosuppressed or over 60?
Ready to book your autumn flu clinic or set up a traveller account?
Send us your headcount, sites and preferred dates, or the names and destinations of the staff travelling next, and we will come back with a quote and a plan. Employers across Trafford, Manchester and Cheshire, one Timperley clinic.