The HSE wants to make it compulsory for health care workers to get the flu vaccine.

Only 30 percent of them get the jab each year - despite influenza causing hundreds of deaths.

Paul Quinn reports:

Officials today acknowledged that scaremongering around the HPV vaccine may also be having an impact on the low uptake of the flu vaccine among the general population.

With more than 470 people on trolleys at hospitals across the country today - the fear is this figure will only get worse as the flu season takes hold.

The HSE is today calling on those most at risk - people aged 65 and over, pregnant women, those with long term and chronic illnesses and nursing home residents to get the vaccine.