Demand for private flu jabs in pharmacies is more than 10 times higher than a year ago as people who do not qualify for a vaccine on the NHS rush to protect themselves against the “super flu” strain, The i Paper can reveal.
Figures from Pharmadoctor, which provides the paid-for vaccine in Tesco pharmacies and other chemists across the country, show that 5.3 times more people requested the jab in the first three months of this flu jab season – September to November – than for the same period in 2024.
This statistic soared to 10.7 times higher during the month of November 2025, compared to November last year.
And in the third week of November, when awareness of the more infectious H3N2 flu strain was growing, demand for the private jab was 23.5 times higher than the same week in 2024.
The NHS offers the free flu vaccine to people aged 65 and over, toddlers, pregnant women and school age children as well as all children and adults with a serious health condition and frontline NHS and care workers.
During the Covid pandemic the age for older adults being offered the free flu vaccine was lowered to 50, as health officials tried to ease pressure on the NHS from both viruses, but it was raised back to 65 in 2023.
Tesco Pharmacy charges £16 per flu jab while other Pharmadoctor partner independent pharmacies charge between £18 and £20.
Graham Thoms, chief executive of Pharmadoctor, said: “We have been monitoring patient demand for private flu jabs in our partner pharmacies and the results are staggering this year.
“We are still receiving patient appointments at a similar level as November which is very unusual.”
Thoms believes the demand is a result of increased public awareness due to high levels of flu circulating and resulting media reports.
But demand could also be fuelled by a parallel increased interest in private Covid jabs in Pharmadoctor partner pharmacies, he said, which could have encouraged older adults below the age of 65 to get both vaccines at the same time.
From September to November 2025 there was a 3.7 times increase in the number of patients having a private Covid jab compared to the same three-month period in 2024.
Around a half of those patients were aged 65 to 74, the age cohort which no longer qualifies for a free Covid jab on the NHS.
Thoms added: “Patient demand for private flu jabs this year is extraordinary. It’s 22 years since I created the UK’s first private pharmacy flu jab service and I’ve never seen patient demand for private flu jabs so high as it is this year.
“We are still receiving thousands of patient appointment bookings for private flu jabs via the Pharmadoctor patient website each day, so it looks like our partner pharmacies will continue to see high demand for the service until the end of the year.”
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The H3N2 strain of flu, which NHS chiefs and ministers have dubbed “super flu”, has led to unprecedented numbers of people ill in hospital with the virus and the closure of several schools.
NHS England has launched a fresh drive to offer schoolchildren the flu vaccine, which is delivered through a nasal spray, in the final days of term to avoid them passing on the virus to older relatives during the Christmas period.
The figures from Pharmadoctor suggest that demand among adults for the free jab is strong. This is echoed by NHS data for over-65s, 70 per cent of whom have had the free jab by the start of December.
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