How do vaccination rates among flu hospital patients compare between people with and without underlying health conditions in the UK?

1. Target groups versus reality: eligibility and uptake

The national programme explicitly prioritises people with long‑term conditions (the “clinical risk groups”) alongside older adults and pregnant women ^[5]. Yet official weekly surveillance shows uptake among those aged under 65 in clinical risk groups clustered in the mid‑30s percent range across late November and early December 2025 — 35.1% (week 48), 36.4% (week 49), and 37.4% (week 50) are reported in successive bulletins ^{[6] [2] [1]}. By contrast, vaccine uptake among the very old is substantially higher: 61.6–62.6% of people aged 75+ had an autumn dose by late November/early December 2025 ^{[2] [1]}.

2. What the surveillance reports do — and don’t — tell us about hospital patients

The government surveillance reports and NHS uptake dashboards track population vaccination by age and eligible groups, and they report hospital admissions and vaccine effectiveness signals, but they do not publish a clean, side‑by‑side breakdown of vaccination rates “among flu hospital patients” separated into those with and without underlying conditions in the sources provided here. Available sources do not mention a single table or figure explicitly comparing vaccination prevalence in hospitalised patients with versus without comorbidities (not found in current reporting).

3. Signals on vaccine protection and hospitalisation risk

Public Health Scotland and related reporting cite early evidence that vaccination reduces severe disease: children vaccinated were reported roughly 70–78% less likely to be admitted, and adults (including 65+) about 30–40% less likely to be admitted in some regional analyses ^{[3] [4]}. The BMJ and BBC coverage warn that the season is early and intense, and that vaccination remains the recommended route to prevent severe illness for at‑risk groups ^{[7] [8]}.

4. Interpreting low uptake in clinical risk groups

Uptake near or below 40% in under‑65 clinical risk groups stands in contrast to higher coverage in older cohorts and reflects a persistent challenge: eligible younger adults with long‑term conditions are not being vaccinated at the same rate as older people ^{[9] [2]}. The surveillance team notes uptake is “comparable” or “higher” for some groups versus last season, but comparability to prior seasons does not negate that absolute coverage in many at‑risk groups remains low ^{[10] [6]}.

5. Why this matters for hospitals and policy

When at‑risk people remain under‑vaccinated, hospital caseloads and severity rise; PHS reports hospital admissions increasing sharply and highlights that those aged 65+, pregnant women, and people with underlying conditions are most at risk of hospitalisation and death ^[3]. UK authorities and clinicians are urging eligible groups to be vaccinated precisely because the vaccine reduces hospital admissions and could blunt pressure on acute services ^{[8] [11]}.

6. Conflicting or missing evidence and recommended next steps

Sources agree vaccination lowers hospital admission risk but differ in geographic detail and target metrics (national uptake dashboards, regional PHS effectiveness summaries, journalism). For a definitive comparison of vaccination rates “among flu hospital patients” by comorbidity status you will need patient‑level hospital surveillance or UKHSA case‑series analyses not included in the supplied documents; available sources do not mention that specific breakdown (not found in current reporting). I recommend requesting UKHSA or NHS England emergency‑admissions datasets or a UKHSA rapid analysis of hospitalised cases by vaccine status and underlying condition to answer your question precisely ^{[12] [2]}.

Limitations: this article uses only the provided governmental, agency and media extracts. All numeric citations are drawn from those sources; no outside datasets were used ^{[2] [1] [12] [6] [9] [3] [4] [7]}.