Making the universal offer of vaccination to JCVI cohorts 1-4 ahead of February 15, and additional funding for vaccination of housebound patients

Contents

 

Classification: Official

Publication approval reference: C1106

To:

  • PCN-led local vaccination sites
  • Community pharmacy-led local vaccination sites

CC:

  • Clinical commissioning groups
  • All GPs
  • Regional heads of primary care and public health
  • Regional directors of commissioning finance
  • Regional medical directors

4 February 2021

Dear LVS sites,

Thank you for your continued support in delivering the COVID-19 vaccination programme.

As you know, we are committed to ensuring that everyone in JCVI cohorts 1-4 has been offered the opportunity to be vaccinated by Monday 15 February. Please continue to do all you can to minimise any inequalities in vaccine uptake within JCVI cohorts 1-4 between different patient groups wherever possible, working with CCG, LA and community partners, mindful of deprivation, ethnicity and factors impacting COVID risk. This will include reminding those on your lists in cohorts 1-4 who have not yet come forward of the offer that you will welcome them making an appointment at any time.

We are therefore asking each PCN site to confirm that they have made an offer to all patients in cohorts 1-4 by the 15th at this link by close on Monday 8 February.

Please complete the short form available here for your site: https://ppds.palantirfoundry.co.uk/secure-upload/forms/q6gbypyjx7c6yoxmazhvcsol2u

This will ensure that all your eligible patients have received a pro-active invitation by Monday night. To ensure a comprehensive approach we will then early next week publicly ask patients 70 and over who have not yet been invited for vaccination and wish to receive one to make contact with the national booking service or their practice, so that they can have an opportunity to be vaccinated later next week.

If there are any concerns about the vaccine supply available to your site for the patients left to vaccinate, please raise in the usual way in your local system in the first instance and we will seek to supply more vaccine later next week as needed.

Vaccination of housebound patients

Some patients will need to receive their COVID-19 vaccinations at home because they are housebound, i.e. they are unable to leave their home at all or require significant assistance to leave the house due to illness, frailty, surgery, mental ill health or nearing end of life.

In light of this, we are providing:

  • An additional supplement of £10 per visit to a housebound patient in order to administer the COVID-19 vaccinations. This supplement is on top of the £12.58 Item of Service fee. If a PCN grouping or community pharmacy contractor administers vaccinations to a housebound patient at the same time as vaccinating other members of the household who are currently eligible for vaccination, only one £10 supplement per visit can be claimed.
  • The £10 supplement applies retrospectively to any first dose vaccinations that have taken place since 14 December 2020 in line with the above criteria, and will also apply to second dose vaccinations that take place in line with these arrangements.

All payments made under this mechanism will be made to GP practices under Section 96 of the NHS Act 2006 (as amended) “Assistance and support: Primary Medical Services”, on the terms set out in this letter. This arrangement will be in place until further notification otherwise. A contract variation will be provided to any community pharmacy contractor requested to provide this service. The provision of this supplement is only for COVID vaccination and does not apply to wider vaccination programmes.

We also confirm that there is nothing to prevent PCN Groupings from subcontracting this service to another contractor under the existing arrangements and we support innovative models of professional collaboration to ensure patients are vaccinated as quickly as possible.

Recording the setting of the vaccination event

We will update the Pinnacle/Outcomes4Health Point of Care System to include additional fields relating to the collection of data to support payment of the £10 residential settings supplement. This process would not apply retrospectively to vaccinations delivered in residential settings in December and January as those payments are currently being processed. We will provide further detail in due course on the timeframe for these changes to the Outcomes4Health Point of Care system, and on how a supplement for retrospective vaccinations in residential settings should be claimed.

In the meantime, sites should maintain clear records of all vaccinations undertaken for the housebound or within another care home/residential setting to support claims for the additional supplement and ensure these vaccinations are recorded on the Outcomes4Health Point of Care system as normal.

How to claim

Guidance on how PCN groupings and community pharmacy contractors should submit claims will be published shortly on NHS Futures.

A Post Payment Verification (PPV) process and review a sample of practice claims. In accessing this funding, practices agree to this process.

Further details on the claims process will be shared with CCGs and NHSE/I regions shortly.

Movement of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine

We issued a position statement on the use of the COVID-19 Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine to visit housebound patients last month, which provides guidance on safe transport and use of punctured vials. We have recently issued equivalent guidance for the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in and between care homes. Please read and follow both sets of guidance to ensure safe transfer of vials between residential settings and aseptic technique.

Yours sincerely,

Ed Waller | Director of Primary Care

Dr Nikita Kanani MBE | Medical Director for Primary Care