Immunisations: information for health professionals and commissioners

Since the Health and Social Care Act 2012, NHS England is responsible for the routine commissioning of national screening and immunisation programmes under the terms of the Section 7a agreement.  This Act introduced changed roles for commissioners of immunisations, the detail of which is outlined in the Immunisation & Screening National Delivery Framework & Local Operating Model.

In London, commissioning of the Section 7a immunisation programmes is done by the NHS England (London) Public Health Commissioning Team.  This team comprises of Public Health England and NHS England staff who work together to improve the uptake and quality of commissioned vaccination services in London.  These services are provided through general practice, school aged vaccination teams, pharmacies, maternity services and some outreach services.

Up-to-date information on vaccinations is provided by the team to all general practices through the monthly GP Bulletin.  If you are a health professional working in immunisations and would like to be kept-up-to-date on immunisations and vaccination services in London, please contact ENGLAND.londonimms@nhs.net.  We have a number of resources on NHS Futures Platform that we can share with you.  We recommend that you also subscribe to Vaccine Update.

If you are an immunisation service provider and you would like to report a vaccine incident, please contact us on england.londonscreening-incidents@nhs.net .

For all other queries, including payments, please contact us on ENGLAND.londonimms@nhs.net.

If you are a member of the public or a vaccination provider and you have a clinical query about a vaccine please contact your local London Health Protection Team through https://www.gov.uk/health-protection-team.

Delivery of immunisations in London during COVID-19: information for the public

While coronavirus has had an impact and put limitations on all our lives, it is important that all those who require them still have routine vaccinations. They protect against serious and potentially deadly illnesses and stop outbreaks in the community.

· It is safe to have your vaccinations – GP practices in London have measures in place to minimise any risk.

· If a vaccination appointment has been missed, please ring your GP practice to re-book.

· If the person needing vaccination has coronavirus symptoms, the appointment will need to be rescheduled.

· Visit www.nhs.uk/vaccinations for more information.

Useful Information for vaccinators

Polio vaccination campaign letter

This letter, published on 10 August 2022, provides information on the polio vaccination campaign and sets out urgent actions that we need to take together following the detection of poliovirus type 2 (PV2) in London sewage, including the polio vaccination of all children aged 1-9 years old in London.

Should General Practice teams have any queries about the delivery of the polio vaccination campaign, please refer to these FAQs.  You should also familiarise yourself with the UKHSA algorithm and FAQ recording polio vaccinations document together with the SNOMED Code document.

Queries on vaccinating your registered patients

If you have newly registered patients and you’re not sure about their vaccination status, please use the PHE UKHSA algorithm for people with uncertain or incomplete immunisation status, which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vaccination-of-individuals-with-uncertain-or-incomplete-immunisation-status. UKHSA has a leaflet on migrant vaccinations, which you may find useful.

We also have guidance for general practice on dealing with missed or incomplete adolescent vaccinations that are offered in schools. Please click here.

For clinical queries, please see the Green Book at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immunisation-against-infectious-disease-the-green-book.

We have also produced a list of codes to help with the recording of childhood immunisation vaccinations, please click here for details.

Parent invite and reminder systems (call/recall) are the most effective way to improve uptake of childhood immunisations. We have developed best practice guidance to help our London based general practices. A Good Practice Immunisation Invite Reminder Poster is also available.

Training

All vaccinators in primary care should have annual vaccination training updates in line with PHE UKHSA standards. In the London Region, we have commissioned free immunisation training webinars from UKHSA for 2022.  Please see the attached flyer for information or email england.londonimms@nhs.net for information.

For training information, free immunisation promotional materials and general information on the Section 7a programmes, please see https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immunisation

Targeted BCG and Hepatitis B programmes

In London we have a Section 7a Hepatitis B programme protocol to help you with vaccinating infants born to mothers who are Hepatitis B positive. This includes what to do with children over the age of one who present with incomplete or unknown vaccination history. Please see Neonatal-Hepatitis-B-pathway for details. All Dried Blood Tests (DBS) for the 12 month blood test can be ordered from england.dbskits-london@nhs.net.

We update our London wide BCG Protocol regularly. For the latest version, please contact england.londonimms@nhs.net

Shingles vaccine toolkit

The shingles vaccination programme provides a free vaccine that helps protect against shingles. It’s recommended for people at higher risk from shingles, including all adults turning 65, those aged 70 to 79 and those aged 50 and over with a severely weakened immune system.

We are pleased to present a shingles toolkit for GPs that provides practical information to help practices identify eligible patients and invite them for their vaccination. It provides updated information on the shingles programme changes that came in on 1 September 2023. The guide also offers information on conducting searches, working out eligibility, claiming payments and suggests ways in which GP practices can reach out to their patients.

Guidance for the collection of patient ethnicity data

London Region Immunisation Team are pleased to publish the following practical information to help practices in the collection of patient ethnicity data. All information provided is intended to support updating existing patient records and newly registered patients.

The GP information pack and posters, created in November 2022, include supportive information on the collection of patient ethnicity, benefits for the patient and systems, statutory responsibilities and supportive coding guidance and materials. Should General Practice teams have any additional queries about ethnicity coding or data please see page 14 in the GP information pack.

Season Flu Programme 2022/23

London Region Immunisation Team is pleased to publish the following documents to support the delivery of the 2022/23 Seasonal Flu Programme

Seasonal Flu GP Enhanced Service Specification

Seasonal Flu Childhood flu Enhanced Service Specification

National Community Pharmacy Specification

Flu Vaccination Collaboration Agreement

Patient Group Directions (PGDs) for Vaccines

Public Health England develop and publish Patient Group Directions (PGDs) for vaccination service providers which NHS England (London Region) is required to authorize and publish.

As these are published, NHS England London Region will authorise them and then publish them on this website, and will replace any existing NHS England London Region PGDs. They will be identified as NHSE/PHE PGDs to differentiate them from those developed by NHS England London Region.

Not all vaccines included in the suite of individual vaccine PGDs may be commissioned from every service but these have been included for completeness.

The development and authorisation of these PGDs is supported by a PGD Policy.

The PGDS on this NHS England London Region’s webpage must only to be used by specified healthcare professionals in the London Region area working for providers that are either directly commissioned by NHS England London Region or who are administering vaccinations as part of a national immunisation programme.

Below are the current PGDs, if you have a query about older PGDs, please email england.londonimms@nhs.net