Practices are to receive bonus payments for bringing forward the COVID and flu vaccination programme because of the risks of the new variant virus, it has been announced. NHS England said the programme should begin on 11 September – three weeks earlier than the planned October start. The alarm has been caused by the identification…

This isn’t a new problem, but I think it’s time we launched a challenge relating to Vaccination and Immunisation payments, CQRS and the ‘business rules’… We recently had to update a CQRS submission as the data extraction had picked up one fewer vaccination than we had on our records. It turns out that the patient…

I’m used to reading NHSE documents, and I know that sometimes you have to read between the lines. That doesn’t appear to be the case this time around. I feel terrible that I’m so suspicious, but the release of documents late on a Friday, with big changes compared to almost every other year’s documents, made…

It’s been a year of change on the vaccinations front, and the flu campaigns for 2021 are no different. Previously you could vaccinate only your own patients, but this year the rules have all changed. We could forgive you for thinking that this is just unnecessary complication, but when you read the specification, it does…

An improved notification system will be in place this year, alerting practices to which patients have received the flu vaccination, it has been announced. The service, created by NHS Digital, sends the information electronically from pharmacies to GP practices. NHS Digital reported on Monday (30 December) that it has been expanded ahead of this winter,…

Practices in Northern Ireland have been told to cease giving flu vaccines to patients under 65s because of “phenomenal” demand. Practices have been running clinics in church halls, community centres and car parks to comply with the government plan to extend the vaccination campaign this year. In common with other parts of the UK, the…

It’s flu season, yay! Not yay really… As a PM, I used to loathe flu season with its enormous amount of work, including juggling staff, patients and of course vaccine deliveries, hoping your reception team wouldn’t forget to put the vaccines in the fridge, despite this being tattooed on their foreheads. Somehow, I still felt…