Consortium of
Lancashire&CumbriaLMCs

Public Health England has asked BMA GPC to cascade the following information regarding a supply issue with the flu nasal vaccine, requiring a phasing of supply of the vaccine:

Recommendations for General Practitioners

GPs are requested to implement the seasonal influenza programme as outlined in the Direct Enhanced Service Specification (www.england.nhs.uk). As part of this GPs are required to call in those children who are eligible for flu vaccination, and to undertake recall for those children in clinical risk groups for influenza. Because of the phasing of supplies PHE recommends planning the childhood vaccination programme using following priorities:

• Children in high risk groups aged 6 months to 2 years – these children should be called and offered quadrivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (QIVe)
• Children in high risk groups from 2 to 18 years should be prioritised and offered LAIV (unless contraindicated).
  • those aged 2-3 years and age 11-18 years should be called in and offered LAIV or a suitable quadrivalent influenza vaccine (QIV)
  • those of primary school age (4-10 years) will be invited through schools, but should be vaccinated with LAIV or QIV if they choose to present in general practice
  • Where a practice does not have LAIV available, vaccination of children in high risk groups should not be delayed and a suitable QIV should be offered as an alternative.
• Healthy children aged 2-3 years should be called and offered LAIV as the practice receives stock. Two year olds who are receiving vaccine for the first season are a higher priority than 3 year olds.

Responsible ordering will help support the direction of stock to those with greatest immediate need as it becomes available. Practice staff are asked to only order vaccine needed for the forthcoming week, even if this is below the maximum quota and to avoid stockpiling. Close adherence to the vaccine storage in the cold chain is essential to avoid vaccine wastage.

Further details on eligible groups can be found in ‘The Green Book’: www.gov.uk

An information leaflet is being developed for parents to explain which children are eligible for vaccination and where this will be delivered and will be posted shortly on the PHE website.

Following further discussions on some of the finer definitions of the scope of CNSGP, BMA GPC are pleased to announce that it has been agreed with DHSC and NHS Resolution that the compiling of safeguarding reports for NHS patients will now be included within scope. It was initially thought that as these reports can be chargeable under collaborative fees arrangements they should be deemed to be private work and, therefore, out of scope. However, lobbying from the BMA extended an alternative view of these statutory reports as being reimbursed by the system rather than a private service to patients. This perspective has been accepted by DHSC and NHSR and, therefore, actions originating from the completion of safeguarding reports after 1stApril 2019 will be covered by CNSGP.

Whilst we have been advocating that practices should make provision for their own indemnity if they provide private travel vaccinations (paid for rather than provided free by the NHS) it appears that this message has varied across the country and the previous scope of cover advice by CNSGP was incorrectly worded. Therefore, we are reiterating our advice in this regard. If you provide paid for travel vaccinations, then you need supplementary indemnity through your private MDO. Practices will have to consider the cost of this provision against the benefit of providing the service. Because of the miswording CNSGP will indemnify practices for these vaccinations until the end of July when you must have other provision in place.

You may find the following link to the CNSGP scope table useful: www.resolution.nhs.uk

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If you would like to see the conference resolutions, election results and motions lost from the UK LMC Conference in Belfast which took place on 19th and 20th March 2019 please click here