GPAtlas💉 When to Offer
Vaccination is a proactive public-health intervention, not a response to a symptom. The default position is to offer every eligible vaccine on the UK national immunisation schedule at the age it works best, and to vaccinate opportunistically at any routine attendance.
• Check the record and offer missing doses at every contact – treat immunisation status as a vital sign.
• Be alert to clinical at-risk groups (asplenia, chronic kidney/heart/lung/liver disease, diabetes, immunosuppression) who need additional or earlier vaccines.
• An incomplete or unknown vaccination status in a child is a recognised safeguarding marker – explore it rather than ignore it.
• The definitive resource for any query is the online Green Book (Immunisation against infectious disease).
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🔑 Key principle – there is no "single-dose" appointment Pull up the full record, work out everything the person is due across the whole schedule, and close the gap in one visit wherever you safely can. The opportunistic dose you give today is often the one that would otherwise be missed. |
Source: UKHSA · The Green Book · UK routine immunisation schedule
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