Updates have been published to two key documents practices rely on for delivering vaccination programmes: the general practice vaccination and immunisation services standards and core contractual requirements, and the general practice RSV vaccination programme technical requirements.
Three changes sit behind the update. The RSV vaccination programme eligibility has expanded from 1 September, so it’s worth checking who now qualifies before your next clinic. The pneumococcal programme has been extended to include people experiencing homelessness, adding another cohort alongside the homelessness inclusion we’ve already seen land in the flu programme this year. And the standards document has also been updated to reflect changes to the MMRV programme.
None of these are huge on their own, but together they’re the kind of incremental contractual change that’s easy to miss if you’re only skimming headlines. Missing an eligibility expansion or a cohort change tends to surface later, either as a missed opportunity to vaccinate someone eligible, or as a query when claims don’t match what was actually delivered.
Worth doing now: read both updated documents in full rather than relying on a summary, check your clinical system templates and standing instructions reflect the RSV eligibility change and the pneumococcal and MMRV updates, and brief whoever runs your vaccination clinics on what’s changed.