Healthcare staff need to encourage high-risk patients to take the flu jab.

This is the opinion of the Health Protection Agency (HPA), who revealed that just 37 per cent of pregnant women took the jab last winter, despite Government targets recommending that 75 per cent of 'at-risk' groups are vaccinated.

The elderly are often considered as an 'at risk' group too, but HPA figures show that the majority of over 65s took the vaccination (73 per cent) and it was actually younger people who suffered from last years common and swine-strains of influenza.

The HPA found that more than 70 per cent of deaths in England and Wales occurred among people aged 15 to 64, but just half of people with 'at risk' conditions came forward for the jab.

These figures could be dramatically improved by those working in direct patient-client environments such as nurse manager jobs who have access to a large number of staff and patients, say the HPA.

Professor John Watson, of the HPA, told Nursing Times: "A concerted effort must be made by healthcare professionals - including GPs and midwives - to encourage those at risk to take up the offer of vaccination. It is the best way to protect against flu."

According to Sky News, he added: "We are very concerned that only half of adults eligible for the jab last winter took up the offer of vaccination, and particularly that just over a third of healthy pregnant women received it."

The NHS have been given three years by the Government to increase the immunisation rate in response to the HPA's findings.