Your GP surgery offers flu vaccination for children who were aged 2,3, or 4 on 1st September 2014. The vaccine is given by means of a nasal spray so there is no nasty needle involved. Flu spreads very rapidly among young children and can then be passed to older children and adults so this is a good means of protecting most of the population. Available NOW. Read more about it here .

 Reading Borough Council is consulating the public on the implementation of the new Care Act. The Act sets uniform, national standards for assessing need and gives new rights to those needing care and to their carers. We hope to have a talk and discussion about aspects of the Care Act at our meeting on 28th January.

A workshop primarily for users of mental health services and their carers, but also for voluntary organisations in this field will be held at Reading Town Hall between 10am and 3pm on Tuesday, 2nd December. Reading Borough, Reading's two Clinical Commissioning Groups and Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust are sponsoring this free event which will contribute to planning future Mental Health Services in Reading. Please see the workshop's website page for details of how to book your place.

Here are a some links to interesting videos and a very clear report about integrated care for frail, elderly patients. Professor David Oliver, consultant at Royal Berkshire Hospital comments on a patient's experiences where very common failings in care took place - see the video - produced under an initiative of Health Service Journal and Serco.