Vaccinations
STAFF WINTER 2025/26 PROGRAMME
All NHS & Health and Social Care staff are eligible for flu vaccine and may be eligible for further vaccinations.
Any staff member who have signed up to digital vaccination prompts will be sent an email/SMS to book appointment on the national portal.
Midlothian Staff Drop-in Clinic
| Venue |
Opening hours (closed public holidays) |
| Midlothian Community Hospital Cairngreen Entrance 70 Eskbank Road, EH22 3ND |
Monday to Sunday, 08:30-16:30 |
HSCP/NHS staff can book an appointment using the booking portal.
Further details of the wider STAFF Clinics in local HSCPS and Acute settings are available at NHS Lothian's vaccination page.
Vaccinations
For full information about eligibility and winter vaccines, please visit NHS Inform.
All Covid and Flu enquiries, or any changes to appointments should be directed to the National Call Centre 0800 030 8013 or the booking portal.
Eligible patients will be contacted either by letter, text or email depending on preferences. Patients are advised to wait until they are contacted.
Flu only clinics start September 16.
Co-administration with Covid and Flu for eligible patients will start in late September/early October.
If you believe you are eligible and have not heard by early December, please call 0800 030 8013.
Visits for housebound patients will start early October and will continue to end of December. Patients will be sent a letter about this, and should only need to contact us to update their information or if they no longer require a visit.
Care Homes in Midlothian
All care homes have been given planned dates for vaccine teams visiting, starting from October 6.
Vaccination staff will visit the wards at Midlothian Community Hospital to vaccinate inpatients from September 30 onwards.
Vaccinations to ward staff will be offered at the same time.
Key changes to eligibility
There are some key changes to COVID eligibility this year.
The COVID-19 vaccine is being offered to people at increased risk of getting seriously ill from COVID-19.
Eligibility remains the same as in spring 2025 and includes:
- adults aged 75 years and over on March 31 2026 (people born on or before March 31 1951).
- residents in care homes for older adults
- people aged 6 months and over on September 1 2025 (born on or before March 1 2025) with a weakened immune system. Having a weakened immune system means someone is not able to fight everyday infections and diseases as well as others.
People with a weakened immune system may include those who had or have:
- a blood cancer (such as leukaemia or lymphoma)
- a weakened immune system due to a medication or treatment (such as steroid medicine, biological therapy, chemotherapy or radiotherapy)
- an organ or bone marrow transplant
- a condition that means someone has a very high risk of getting infections
- a disease which affects the immune system such as HIV.
Flu eligibility:
- Children aged 6 months to 2 years in clinical risk groups.
- Children aged 2 - 5 years.
- Primary school aged children.
- Secondary school aged children.
- People aged 65 - 74 years.
- Those aged 18 to 64 in defined risk groups. This includes: Those in clinical at risk groups set out in the Green Book.
- Pregnant women.
- Those experiencing homelessness.
- Those experiencing substance misuse.
- Frontline health and social care workers.
- All NHS workers.
- Poultry workers.
- Unpaid carers and young carers.
- Household contacts of those with immunosuppression.
Vaccination Clinics In Midlothian Autumn/Winter 2025
Appointments only. Please arrive at your appointment time.
Eastfield and Penicuik Medical Practices close at 12:30 on the last Wednesday of the month.
Important: We do sometimes use GP rooms, but GPs no longer administer vaccinations. These are provided by local HSCP Vaccination teams.
Vaccination Clinics Venues (by appointment only)
| Venue |
Opening hours (closed public holidays) |
| Midlothian Community Hospital 70 Eskbank Road, EH22 3ND |
Monday to Sunday, 08:30-16:30 |
| Dalkeith Medical Practice, 24-26 St Andrew St, Dalkeith EH22 1AP |
Monday to Friday, 08:30 to 16:30 Closed for break 10:30-10:45 & 12:30 to 13:15 Closed December 2-3. Last autumn/winter clinic Friday December 19. |
| Eastfield Medical Practice, Eastfield Farm Road, Penicuik EH26 8EZ |
Monday, Wednesday, Saturday & Sunday 08:30-16:30 Closed for break 10:30-10:45 & 12:30 to 13:15 Closed October 11-12, 18-19 & November 23. Last autumn/winter clinic Sunday December 21. |
|
Penicuik Medical Practice, |
Wednesday only 08:30-16:30 |
Other National Vaccination Campaigns – PAUSED
RSV Programme
The RSV campaign for older people has paused for Autumn/Winter 2025.
We await further guidance regarding the next RSV campaign, and eligible patients will be contacted in due course.
For more information about RSV, particularly about eligibility, which is based on age and not health, please visit NHS Inform's RSV vaccine pages
Shingles and Pneumococcal Programmes
This campaign will restart in early January 2026. Eligible patients will be contacted in due course. This includes patients who are newly eligible due to the expansion of the programme:
Extension to the Shingles Vaccination Programme: JCVI statement on the shingles (herpes zoster) vaccination programme - GOV.UK
For more information about Shingles please visit NHS Inform's Shingles vaccine pages
For more information about Pneumococcal please visit NHS Inform's Pneumococcal vaccine pages.
Enquiries
If patients have a query about Shingles, Pneumococcal, RSV and non-routine vaccinations please call 0300 790 6296.
All Covid and Flu enquiries, or any changes to appointments should be directed to the National Call Centre 0800 030 8013 or the booking portal.
Health professionals have a referral route for patients they deem as requiring urgent or non-routine vaccinations. Please use REF HELP for the most up-to-date non routine referral form.
(Last updated on 22 Sep 2025)