A reminder for anyone running seasonal vaccination clinics this autumn: practices must use an IT system that is assured for creating vaccination records. Recording in an unassured system, such as EMIS PCN Hub, has real consequences.
Practices using an unassured system will not be remunerated, and the patient’s vaccination history won’t be updated automatically. For COVID-19 vaccinations, it may also mean the practice doesn’t receive enough vaccine.
There’s a second point on data quality. From this autumn/winter, GP IT systems are responsible for implementing the same mandatory fields for COVID-19 vaccination that point of care systems have required since the programme started. These aren’t new requirements, but they are now enforced in the GP system. All GP IT systems will also be rolling out mandatory fields for flu vaccination recording this autumn/winter, if they haven’t already. Filling in the mandatory fields avoids poor data quality, reduces clinical risk to patients and keeps practices on the right side of professional standards.
Worth doing now: confirm with whoever leads your vaccination clinics that every vaccinator is recording in an assured system, especially if you’re collaborating with a PCN and using shared tools. Then check that your team knows the mandatory fields for COVID-19 and flu, so nothing is left blank at the point of vaccination.