National Flu Immunisation Programme Extract
Background
NHS Digital has been asked to support the NHS to maximise the uptake of flu vaccinations ahead of Winter 2020 as part of the COVID-19 and Winter Preparedness priority for the NHS and the care system.
NHS England has contracted South Central and West Commissioning Support Unit (CSU) to provide a flu vaccination call/recall service for Patients who have not been vaccinated through other routes. It is likely that this service will extend and form part of the COVID-19 vaccination approach. South Central and West CSU have contracted System C to provide the digital system for this service.
NHS Digital maintains datasets that can inform the cohorts that require free flu vaccinations. This includes the routine annual creation of GP flu cohorts used for payment purposes. During the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, NHS Digital has created and now operates the Shielded Patient List service which provides cohort selection of individuals at high risk of complications from COVID-19.
Goal
Provide a single dataset of flu vaccinations for NHS Digital that allows a more complete picture of the rate in the population at a patient level. The dataset will feed into a call/recall system for seasonal flu.
Assumptions
- An Information Governance approval is in place for all flows
- Tracking is for all Patients who receive a flu vaccine, irrespective of whether they are in the free flu vaccine cohorts
Progress to date
NHS Digital’s Digital Child Health (DCH) programme is supporting this work as it has worked with a subset of Child Health Suppliers as part of a private beta arrangement within the North East London Foundation Trust (NELFT) to define, develop and implement Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource (FHIR) profiles to facilitate the sharing of child health data across various healthcare settings.
The vaccinations programme has been launched and is part of the COVID-19 and Winter Preparedness priority activities. As such, the DCH work on vaccinations has now been incorporated into the vaccinations programme and the relevant COVID-19 prioritisation.
Outline Plan
There is an expectation that the first element of this Roadmap Item should be fully developed by the 28th September 2020.
A catch up Capability will need to be available if the daily feed is available after flu vaccinations start being delivered, e.g. a bulk upload.
Summary of Change
There are two elements of change:
- This change is required immediately: The National Flu Immunisation Programme 2020 to 2021 requires GP IT system providers to support the seasonal flu effort by providing NHS Digital with a new feed of data to support take-up of the flu vaccine. The data will feed a call/recall facility and will only be maintained for the duration of the seasonal flu period to facilitate call/recall as and when a COVID-19 vaccination becomes available. As such, the second element of change is required.
- This timeframe is TBC. GP IT Suppliers will need to ingest vaccination information sent by NHS Digital via MESH, ensuring the Patient record is updated with vaccination administration information, where this has been delivered via another healthcare professional not associated with the Practice where the Patient record resides.
The data being sought from GP IT systems has been pre-defined within Information Standards Notice (ISN) - DCB3009 Healthy Child Programme, which sought a status of compliance by 30th June 2020. Therefore, the data should already be readily available for sharing.
It is envisaged that the data will be shared with NHS Digital using existing capabilities, namely the Message Exchange for Social Care and Health (MESH) using an agreed delimited file format.
Data for deceased and S flagged service users should not be shared.
Data should be shared where service users have requested a national opt-out (formerly type 1 opt-outs).
Please see below for examples of high level user stories relating to this Roadmap Item:
As a GP IT Supplier I want to share information about all service users given a flu vaccination within a GP Practice, on a daily basis So that NHS Digital has the most recent information about the service user before a call/recall is invoked. What is the outcome that the user will see or goal that is achieved? The GP IT Supplier will: - Send information within a pre-defined timeframe to enable the DPS to undertake additional processing of the data before it exchanges information with the call/recall service. - Send information to NHS Digital between 20:00 to 23:00. What’s the overall benefit they will experience? GP IT Suppliers will send information to NHS Digital within agreed timeframes. What issue will have been resolved? Timely access, by NHS Digital, to service user’s information, as this is not readily available from GP IT Suppliers, to facilitate the National Flu Immunisation Programme’s aim of vaccinating a wider cohort of services users than in previous years, within the 2020 to 2021 Winter flu season (September to March). |
As a GP IT Supplier I want to exclude the sharing of deceased (formal and informal) service user records and those that have been flagged Sensitive ‘S’ So that these records are not shared with NHS Digital. What is the outcome that the user will see or goal that is achieved? GP IT Suppliers will: - not share deceased or ‘S’ flagged records. What’s the overall benefit they will experience? Service user records are excluded from the cohort being sought by NHS Digital. What issue will have been resolved? Deceased (formal and informal) and ‘S’ flagged records are not shared. |
As a GP IT Supplier I want to validate the NHS number immediately prior to submitting to NHS Digital So that I can ensure the demographic data is accurate and therefore avoid confusion over which services users have received a vaccine. What is the outcome that the user will see or goal that is achieved? GP IT Suppliers will: - Send validated NHS numbers. What’s the overall benefit they will experience? Call/recall can target service users who have not received a vaccine. What issue will have been resolved? Reduction in inaccurate service users' data enabling call/recall to operate efficiently. |
As a GP I want to receive information about service users who have received a flu vaccination via another Healthcare Professional (HCP) not associated to my Practice, in a pre-defined and structured format. So that I have the most recent information about flu vaccination administered against the service user record and therefore do not need to invoke my own local call/recall process in having the service user vaccinated and I don’t have to manually enter the information on my local system. What is the outcome that the user will see or goal that is achieved? The GP will: - Have access to the latest information with regards to the status of the flu vaccination. - Not be required to manually enter the information. - Hold a complete record of flu vaccination data for an individual. What’s the overall benefit they will experience? The GP will have access to the latest information with regards to the status of the flu vaccination. What issue will have been resolved? Potential capacity issues of the GPs having to administer vaccination to a larger cohort of service users. |
Full Specification
Please send an e-mail to Vaccinationpmo@nhs.net to obtain a copy of the full specification for this Roadmap Item.
Assurance Approach
Please see the attached document to view the assurance approach for this Roadmap Item: