20 Years Of Flu Vaccination Vouchers: How Doctorcall Helped Make Workplace Vaccination More Accessible

Twenty years ago, Doctorcall created the flu vaccination voucher.

In 2006, the idea was new. Workplace flu vaccination was still limited, and employers had few simple ways to offer vaccination to staff who could not attend an on-site clinic. What began as a physical paper voucher handed out to employees has since become a familiar part of many workplace wellbeing programmes.

Today, flu vaccination vouchers are often seen as a standard employee benefit. But the service has changed significantly over the past two decades. Paper vouchers are still available and remain useful in workplaces where not every employee has easy access to email, such as factories, construction sites and other operational settings. Alongside this, Doctorcall has introduced digital vouchers, online payment, pay-per-activation, management reporting, full online automation and self-service options.

That evolution reflects the way workforces have changed. Businesses now need vaccination options that work for office-based teams, remote workers, field-based employees, shift teams and multi-site organisations.

Doctorcall’s role in workplace vaccination began before vouchers. The company started providing on-site flu vaccinations in response to demand from employers, developing commoditised programmes with nurses working under a patient group direction, or PGD, which allowed them to vaccinate without a doctor present. Vaccines were ordered centrally into a warehouse and couriered to clients within cold chain requirements.

As the service grew, Doctorcall saw the need for a solution for employees who were not on-site. Having already introduced flu vaccinations into Boots and Barclays pharmacies, Doctorcall developed a voucher system that allowed employees to access vaccination through participating pharmacies.

What began as a practical answer to a single employer problem has since grown into a wider workplace vaccination service. Today, Doctorcall supports businesses with flu vaccination vouchers, on-site flu clinics and combined programmes for organisations with mixed workforces.

It is a model shaped by 20 years of practical employer need. Businesses, workforces and the way care is accessed have changed. But the central question remains the same: how can employers make vaccination easier for their people?

From Voucher To Workforce Health Solution

Doctorcall’s flu voucher service began with the idea that employees who could not easily attend a workplace clinic still needed a practical route to vaccination.

The simplicity of the process made the model attractive for employers. It helped reduce friction for staff and gave HR teams a clear, manageable way to support winter wellbeing.

Doctorcall’s current flu vaccination vouchers are now available in paper and digital formats and can be redeemed at more than 3,500 participating pharmacies nationwide. The digital voucher process allows employers to share an activation code with employees, who can then generate their own voucher by email and present it at a participating pharmacy.

Electronic vouchers enable Doctorcall to charge only for vouchers that have been redeemed and to provide management information.

For remote workers, field-based teams, hybrid employees and organisations with multiple sites, the flexibility of the different solutions is increasingly important. For HR teams, vouchers provide an easily implemented and popular solution.

Why Workplace Flu Vaccination Matters

Short-term respiratory infections can create a significant productivity burden for employers during the winter. Research by the Office of Health Economics estimates that respiratory infections cost UK businesses £44 billion per year, or £852 per employee. The same research finds that presenteeism, where employees work while unwell and are less productive, represents 55% of the total cost.

Sickness absence also remains a live workforce issue. The Office for National Statistics reported that the UK sickness absence rate in 2025 was 2.0%, unchanged from 2024, with an estimated 148.8 million working days lost because of sickness or injury.

Flu is more harmful to productivity than the bare figures suggest, because it causes unplanned absence, and worse still, in an epidemic, which occurs approximately every five years, it can cause mass unplanned absence.

Flu vaccination can’t remove all winter illness, but it provides a cost-saving benefit for employees who want to protect themselves, and it is an essential plank in a wider staff health strategy.

The First Independent Provider In This Space

Doctorcall has led the private flu vaccination service, providing the first on-site commoditised vaccination service, training Boots, Asda, Barclays and other pharmacy chains to do vaccinations, and inventing flu vouchers.

Businesses want vaccination services that are easy to arrange, simple for employees to use and suitable for different working patterns. HR teams also need clear communication, rapid fulfilment and less manual administration.

Doctorcall has continued to innovate and has a technology team continually improving the range of electronic voucher options available.

Looking Ahead

Twenty years after Doctorcall invented flu vaccination vouchers feels like a milestone, and is an interesting time to review how the landscape has changed.

What began as a solution to a single problem has become part of a wider approach to employee health, prevention and business continuity.

Doctorcall plans to extend the same voucher process to other services and products where this model can make access simpler for employers and employees. As workforces continue to change, the Doctorcall vaccination service will continue to evolve around flexibility, ease of use and practical access to care.