Flu has closed an entire school this week. That's how bad it is this winter!

It's so bad the school is shut for five days after almost a third of pupils and members of staff were struck by the virus. About 330 pupils and 25 staff at Bramhall High School in Stockport, Greater Manchester, have been off since Tuesday. It's only a hop skip and a jump away from CHFT too!

Head teacher Lynne Fox said cases were "continuing to rise" causing an "unprecedented situation". The 1,200-pupil school is due to reopen on 13 December.

Mrs Fox took action following guidance from Public Health England and she said a "deep clean" of the site would be carried out.

She said the closure would allow "a period of recuperation" for those who are ill and "avoid any danger of re-infection".

Strong stuff from Mrs Fox but it really emphasises how easily this year's flu is passed on and how devastating its effects can be.

** To promote the jab and as part of #Jabathon week to raise awareness of flu on social media we held a Mannequin Challenge at HRI this morning. Huge thanks to those team who came along at such a busy time - including Physiotherapy, Medical Engineering, Interserve and THIS.

You can see the film on YouTube here. You may may need to open Google Chrome to see it. We'll also be sharing the clip on Twitter and our Facebook pages - so why not follow us too? @CHFTNHS on Twitter or Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust on Facebook.

And there's another session at CRH at 4.30pm (small training room) this afternoon, we're hoping for another fun session to highlight this important message. Come along if you can and get involved.

To bring you up-to-date, almost 60% of frontline colleagues at CHFT have now been vaccinated against the flu. We're aiming to have 75% completed by the end of the December.

This year the staff vaccination programme has been included as part of the Staff Wellbeing CQUIN (Commissioning for Quality and Innovation).  More importantly we know that if 75% of colleagues are vaccinated we have what's known as "herd" immunity - so protecting the remaining 25%.

Alongside the flu vaccination programm the CQUIN also focuses on wellbeing related (including MSK and stress) staff survey questions and providing a step-change in the health of the food offered on premises.

So how are the operational divisions doing? As at 6 December.....

Drop ins this week 

HRI drop-ins

CRH

If you have any questions our flu pages may also help you or you can email us at Flu.CHFT@cht.nhs.uk