The Nursing in Practice Podcast: The ‘phenomenal role’ of nurses in meningitis outbreak

The Nursing in Practice podcast shares the voices of nurses at the centre of general practice and in the community.

This episode goes into depth about the recent meningitis B outbreak in Kent which saw 13,000 antibiotics dispensed in the first week followed by 11,000 vaccinations given by nurses across several healthcare organisations.

Listeners can also hear about the preliminary findings from Nursing in Practice’s General Practice Nurse (GPN) pay report: A salary survey of the profession 2026.

View more content at nursinginpractice.com and register for Nursing in Practice email newsletters.

This episode was produced by Gee Harland

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:06

Hello and welcome back to the Nursing and Practice Podcast. It's Meg here, editor at Nursing and Practice. So today in this episode, we're going to be talking about the meningitis outbreak in Kent, which started in early March. And I'm also going to be talking a little bit about an upcoming general practice nurse pay survey that we've got coming later this month. So I'm here joined by G Harland, who's our new senior reporter on nursing and practice, and she's here to talk you through the meningitis outbreak and what's been happening there, really. So hello G.

SPEAKER_04 0:37

Hi everyone. Thank you so much for joining us on the Nursing in Practice podcast. It's so nice to be here. As Meg said, I'm the new reporter here at Nursing in Practice, and I've been really excited to delve into a lot of different topics so far. And one of those has been the meningitis outbreak in Kent. We just want to say before diving into this topic that the risk to the wider public is low, but we still think it's a very important topic to talk about, especially the roles that nurses took during the outbreak. So we've actually been really lucky to interview several members of the UK Health Security Agency and Kent NHS Trust about the outbreak, how it was managed. And they pretty much gave us a play-by-play of how they became aware of the outbreak and the next steps. So before we get into what they were talking about, I'll just run through the interviewees. So we had Julie Yates, a deputy director for immunisation programs at the UK Health Security Agency, and David Green, a nurse consultant for immunisations, also at the UK Health Security Agency. We also had practitioners from the Kent, Surrey, and Sussex area. And that's Katie Allen, lead health protection practitioner, Jamie Morgan, principal health protection practitioner, and Esther Tabor, a consultant nurse for infection prevention and control. And finally, we also had Louise King, an immunisation lead nurse for Kent Community Health, NHS.

SPEAKER_03 2:07

So, gee, it would be really great if you could just start off by giving us a bit of an overview of the situation and what happened in those first few days of when we found out about meningitis.

SPEAKER_04 2:17

We were first made aware of the outbreak on Monday, the 16th of March, after hospitalisations had taken place over the weekend. Staff were very quick to identify the cases as being unusual and needing to find a link between the patients. This was later identified as Club Chemistry in Canterbury and University of Kent student halls. Whilst this was going on, there were other nurses that also needed to contact family members. And part of this was because they needed to help control the spread of meningitis. And Katie Allen, who is a lead health practitioner, um, was one of the nurses responsible for this. And she said that over the 23 years that she'd been in the industry, she had never seen anything of this scale, presumably outside of COVID-19. She said she was very conscious and mindful of contacting family members because sadly, by the 16th of March, two people had died from meningitis. The next steps were setting up the antibiotic hubs, and Jamie Morgan, the principal health protection practitioner, said that it was extremely important and vital because antibiotics offer pretty much immediate protection, whilst the vaccine can take a couple of weeks. Thanks for that, G.

SPEAKER_03 3:27

So you actually mentioned COVID there, and that got me thinking back to that time in the pandemic, and obviously it's it's not the same at all. But being a nursing journalist, I sort of remember waiting for those government updates. And and during that time in March, just gone, we we were waiting for where the streeting to provide an update on sort of what the next steps were. Um, and so we know that that ultimately came to a vaccination programme. So I wondered if you could sort of tell us a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_04 3:53

So the strain of meningitis was identified as meningitis B. And the main concern that I rose with this specific strain was that the vaccine to offer protection against it, Men V, was only added to the vaccine programme in 2015 for babies, meaning that anyone born before 2015 would not have been offered the jab unless they had paid privately for it. So that means a lot of the students in um the University of Kent uh won't have received the jab.

SPEAKER_03 4:19

And we know actually that when when this was all going on, that the Westreating has asked uh the Joint Vaccinations Indonisations Committee to look into this, haven't they, to sort of review um vaccine eligibility. So we're still waiting to see what happens there. But obviously, in the immediate response, we know the government did decide to open vaccination hubs. Um so that was announced on the 17th of March following the strain being identified. So I wondered if you could sort of talk us through that, G, what happened there behind the scenes with the vaccines?

SPEAKER_04 4:48

Absolutely, yes. Um, so the government did decide that um vaccination hubs were going to be opened for um some students in the Kent area. Um Ann Louise King, um, an immunization lead nurse for Kent Community Health NHS, she spoke in depth about the vaccination hubs as she was leading the main one that was set up in the Senate building in Kent. Um, and it did seem like the healthcare were prepping for that inevitability before it was even announced by the government, despite the fact that it wasn't added to the vaccine programme uh until 2015. Um, but the government said that given the severity of the situation, that they felt they did need to start this vaccine programme. Um so let's hear what Louise King had to say um about the vaccination hubs.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

It was a complete collaborative effort. Obviously, we all heard sort of over the weekend, oh, some something's coming our way, you know, you sort of start getting ready, don't you? And then um, yeah, we all went working Monday and we're just sort of prepping ourselves, thinking, right, let's get everything in place so that we're ready to go because we were just waiting. We're just we were literally sit poised waiting for that call for the vaccination programme to start. Um, obviously the antibiotics were first given on the Sunday evening at the Kent Uni site in the Senate building. So that was amazing how that just so quickly got set up. And then, yeah, like you say, by 2 pm on um Wednesday we gave our first vaccines. We gave 600 and just shy of 690 vaccines that first afternoon, and then on the Thursday we went again, we gave another 1400, and then on the Friday we went again, we gave 1800, and then um on the Saturday, I think we gave about 750. On the Sunday, similar sort of numbers, and then by Monday it and Tuesday it sort of dropped to sort of about 350. That is when we closed down a lot of the sites, and we've just kept the one site open um for this weekend for people still to still to keep coming in, and all our focus now is uh we've got school sessions booked in the next few days for those year 11s. The schools have been fantastic, and the Kent University site, I cannot thank them enough. They were fantastic, the security, the catering, they have just looked after us so well, they've been brilliant. The um vice chancellor's been down nearly every day just to check how things are going, loads of senior staff from the uni just checking in with us. We obviously had our big visit on the Thursday from West Streeting, um, which was really good. Um, I think he was super impressed at what we were delivering. That day we did uh 1,400 vaccines, so it was a good day for him to come and visit. Um, but even just things like the I mean, obviously, our staff were working absolutely tirelessly. Everybody has worked above and above and beyond their normal hours. There was no sort of hesitation in everyone saying, I can give an extra couple of hours, I can work Saturday, I can work Sunday. Everyone just pitched in and it just didn't feel like hard work at all because everyone wanted to be there and we all just had this central goal that we were all just aiming for. Everyone just wanted to be there and doing their part and doing the best. And the young people in the queue were just amazing. I think at one point on Friday, the queue, the people that we were seeing at sort of three, four o'clock on the Friday had been in the queue nearly seven hours, and they were amazing. These young people of that university, they were positive, they were polite, they were grateful. It wasn't, it was just, it was just so lovely. We didn't have any any trouble considering how big the queue was. I think I did a queue count at one point and it was one fat over a thousand people long, nearly 1,500 people long, um, myself and the security of the queue, and nobody was grumbling. It just it's just been really, really smooth, well organised. It's considering them the volume of people we've had through that sports hall, at no point has it particularly felt stressy or you know, it's just it's it's just just everything's just come together. We are experts in what we do in delivering these vaccination programs, and um, yeah, it it just it was absolutely proven this weekend just gone, definitely. Really, really proud of all of our team, administrators, the beginning of the week, Monday and Tuesday, because obviously we were poised to go, but we couldn't go anywhere yet. Our our admin team, our central admin hub, they had about a two-hour waiting time on the phone with anxious parents. So, just to give a little shout out to them, our administrators were dealing with these really worried and anxious parents who just wanted a bit of reassurance to check an immunisation history and just for a bit of advice and reassurance, and they dealt with that really just so well. So proud of everybody. 13,000 antibiotics have been dispensed to date. 11,000 vaccines, over half of those were just delivered from the sports hall venue. We were delivering them over six sites, so the sports hall was our huge venue where we had about 25 vaccinators, um, and obviously with and all the support staff. We also had five smaller sites in clinics where they sort of had three to five vaccinators where they were also seeing people. The whole effort involved 130 registered clinicians, 58 support staff, including HR, comms, IPC, pharmacy. Um, and yes, there were 188 colleagues from KCHFT were involved in providing the vaccinations and the antibiotics, and most of it came from the immunisation service and our sexual health service. We were the ones that really stepped up and sort of took the took the brunt of it all, and then the sort of the rest of it was just people slipping in from other service, but it was immunisations and sexual health that have led on it.

SPEAKER_03 10:42

It sounds like a lot of work went into the vaccination hubs. And gee, what else did nurses have to do as part of the outbreak?

SPEAKER_04 10:49

Yeah, so our immediate thought was of course, we're gonna have so many nurses involved in giving out these antibiotics, giving out um vaccinations, but actually they were doing so much behind the scenes that um I wasn't even aware of, which is why I've been um so grateful that we've been able to speak to these interviewees because they've been fab at giving me sort of such a good understanding of all the different roles that they've been taking on. Um and Julie Aights, Deputy Director for Immunisation Programmes at the UK Health Security Agency, um, explained a lot about the responsibilities that nurses had to take on, um, such as a lot of written communications. So one thing I didn't mention was that when the outbreak was first announced, a lot of students in the Kent area had actually left. Um so you can imagine the job that nurses had um when they're trying to contact those family members, those friends to find out if they had been in the similar areas and therefore needed antibiotics and vaccines. Um, I can imagine it was chaos for them. So, yes, nurses were responsible for contacting, for example, general practices across um the rest of England to ask them to be a part of giving out these vaccines. Um but let me hand over to Julie and she can explain a lot better um the different roles that nurses had to do.

SPEAKER_05 12:06

So we we were responsible for writing letters to so that the university could send them out, for linking with our global colleagues, for linking with our devolved administration colleagues, because these students dispersed across the whole of the UK, um, including the Crown Dependencies, Gibraltar, um, all around the world. So there's a lot of communication from our nursing teams and others across all these departments. But one of the things that had to be done and it was to design um commission and get printed all of those leaflets that was done overnight on the Tuesday night to be able to deliver them to the vaccination clinic. Um, we delivered 5,000 of those within um within 12 hours of being asked to do it. So that that that that's the sort of thing that nurses do rather as well as at the front end. Hats off to the the ICB and colleagues all around those organisations who dropped everything to do what was needed. Um, and I'm as I said, I'm a nurse, so I think nurses in this have played a phenomenal role in all of those organisations. So we have colleagues in our health equity team who are nurses who were leading on liaising with Department for Education.

SPEAKER_03 13:31

You were right, G, that there's definitely a lot behind the scenes that yourself and I and and other people just weren't aware of that that nurses were doing during this time.

SPEAKER_04 13:40

There were lots of different organisations and people that were involved in the um outbreak management efforts. Um there were different trusts, ICBs. Um, and when they asked, when I asked the interviewees how they would sum up the efforts, the word collaboration came up a lot, um, as well as the awareness that was raised. And that's not only about um meningitis and um you know how serious it can be, but also it's the importance of the vaccinations. Um I'll hand over to the interviewees for them to summarize um how they would describe those efforts.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

Yeah, I I I just think I just think everyone has been committed to to making this happen. Um, and that's not just the different agencies, it's the individuals who make up those agencies. I just think, yeah, it's it's just been uh um a really good example of professional commitment.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

We start our teenage boosters program after Easter, which is the meningitis ACWY vaccine, and we've had a real spike in uptake. So um yeah, we have no, yeah, no, not much proactive work being needed this year. It's uh yeah, everyone's being really responsive to all of our comms.

SPEAKER_02 14:54

It's just reminded people that the importance and I think a general awareness of men in chocolate disease as well. Obviously, we do do a lot of that proactive work, especially with universities and further education. But actually, this has you know brought it to the forefront, and I think much many more people are aware of the signs and symptoms and getting early assessment and that which which does help outcomes.

SPEAKER_03 15:22

I think it's been really great to speak to to those such as Julie and Louise and and the others who were involved in in this response. Um, as we said before, it was it was a massive response, and it's really helped highlight just how much nurses are doing in this space um and and the huge part that they played during the outbreak.

SPEAKER_04 15:40

Yeah, I think it was clear that the teams across um the Kent Trust, the UK Health Security Agency, and just all the others that were involved were just so impressed with nurses and the other healthcare staff that were involved. Um, and I know that Julie now hopes that it will advocate um for nursing as a great role for people to be in. Um, so I'll hand over again to her to explain what she hopes people take away from the efforts that nurses have made.

SPEAKER_05 16:10

So I think it's just recognising that there has been a vast range of nurses. Nurses provide the bulk of many professional responses, but at the front line, as Louisa said, but also behind the scenes. And I think we're really keen for people to realise that there are so many opportunities to work in public health nursing, to work in all of these different disciplines, and our professional colleagues out there, our nurse colleagues out there, these are great jobs to be in. I mean it's hard work, and this is it's been really tiring, but actually it's really rewarding as well. Um so I'd encourage people to to look to uh public health nursing and uh the agencies, definitely, as uh if they're looking for um careers that are are long long careers, as David and I know, but but it's it's these are these are roles, these are things that happen, and as as Louise said, they can get knocked to the side quite often, but it's so important. This is primary prevention. Yeah, um, there's a big banner about prevention rather than secondary um care and treatment um being a priority. This is the key thing that is prevention. Um, vaccination is one of the most effective public health interventions. So, so everyone here has been working on that, and I'd appreciate there was antibiotics and the rest of the um public health response as well. But these things really make a difference, and and I'd encourage people to really look at a career in public health nursing.

SPEAKER_04 17:55

So, thank you so much to um listening to me explain about the meningitis outbreak and going through um the interviews uh with Julie, David, Katie, Jamie, Esther, and Louise. Um, if you want to find out more about um what they had to say, you can head over to the Nursing in Practice website um to see our written coverage of uh the interview. Now, Meg, I understand you have um some preliminary findings of the GPN pay report that you would like to take us through.

SPEAKER_03 18:24

Absolutely. So, yes, we've been running a GPN pay salary survey. Um, so I'm really grateful to the almost 900 general practice nursing staff who did respond to that. Um, and there was about trap for grabs, and I haven't forgotten, and we will be announcing a winner of that shortly. Um, so yeah, as you say, I thought it would just be be helpful to give a little bit of a teaser of what's to come. The report itself won't be published until the 30th of April, and it's gonna be soft-launched at our Nursing and Practice London event, which we're really excited about. And we're gonna be joined by Professor Nicola Ranger, Chief Executive of the RCN, who's gonna deliver a keynote address actually on general practice and community nursing and about all things pay, conditions, and workforce, before the report is actually then going to be officially launched in Parliament in front of MPs during International Nurses Day on the 12th of May. So it's unfortunately unsurprising that the situation with general practice nurse pay isn't very good in terms of we know that they're lagging behind NHS colleagues and those in secondary care. We know that our survey has shown that a significant amount of people are actually looking to leave the profession within the next year because they feel their pay isn't keeping up with the cost of living, um, and it doesn't reflect their responsibilities and workload. And so yeah, as I said, our survey has just added weight really to ongoing concerns around poor pay, terms and conditions of the profession, a lack of benefits that are above statutory, so for maternity and sick pay. Um, and it really our report is going to highlight how there's just this significant gap between a general practice nurses, vital clinical contribution, and how are they and how they are rewarded. Um, and ultimately the risks that this poses to the future workforce. Um, and we know they're so vital, we know they're delivering millions of appointments every month. Um, so without without this workforce, general practice will be significantly at risk. So we hope our report is gonna really shine a light on on these issues. It's a a big evidence bank of everything that's all related to nurse pay, and we're gonna take it to the highest levels and hope we can enact some change. So, as I said, yeah, lots going on in this space for our nursing audience. So please do keep a close eye out on um the nursing and practice website and across our social media for the coming weeks.

SPEAKER_04 20:50

Thank you again so much uh to everyone that's tuned in to listen to this week's episode.

SPEAKER_03 20:56

Yeah, thanks so much, everyone. I'm really grateful for all of you for listening. And as I say, please do keep an eye out on our nursing and practice website and take a look at our future events that are coming up this year, too.