Pharmacy Influenza Commissioning 2015

PSNC have confirmed a nationally commissioned NHS influenza service for 2015/16 on Monday 20 July 2015. The service is open to any suitably qualified pharmacist working within a pharmacy with a PREM 1 certified consultation room. The NHS England, national commissioning forms the basis of pharmacy vaccination services which may be augmented locally with additional PGDs.

Pharmacies will be reimbursed the cost of the vaccine, and receive £9.14 per administered dose (comprising remuneration of £7.64 plus an additional fee of £1.50 to cover the costs of providing the service).  There will be no separate funding for initial set-up costs, as the £1.50 per dose is intended to cover these.  The service is being funded from NHS England’s annual flu vaccination programme budget.

Key points

• Available to all pharmacies in England from September 2015.
• Commissioned on an annual basis.
• The National PGD only covers NHS vaccinations for those in risk categories above 18 years of age as defined in DoH Flu letter Appendix A.
• Locally, health authorities may wish to add additional patient groups and vaccines so make sure you are in regular contact with your LPC.

Action points

If you want to take part in this service look at training now:

• No national training is offered - we can provide you with the training required for this service.
• Train more than one pharmacist - to cope with demand covering high volume of patients and holiday periods.
• Involve your pharmacy team - we have videos in our training to support the service
• Speak to local GPs to work together to ensure patients aren’t confused and targets are met.

Why choose us?

• 2 hours of HD, in pharmacy footage of how to operate your new service.
• Ongoing support and point of sales materials to support your training.
• Training in techniques that suit all vaccination services such as NHS-commissioned services and private PGD travel services.
• A wider choice of vaccines through an open flu PGD.

Flu PGD 2014

The weather is to get colder and as last year it is expected that there will be a later start to flu in England so NHS London has extended the flu SLA further to 31st March 2014 even though flu season really stops around february. In addition, the commissioners have also stated that pharmacists can vaccinate any pregnant women all year round and the will get reimbursed.

It was the fact that NHS London/GP's were a bit iffy about whether pharmacist should go into care homes. Permission was supposed to be sought from LA's this caveat has now been removed. You can go to Care & Nursing Homes and those that are housebound without prior permission from NHS.

Influenza Pharmacy Commissioning 2014/2015 - Stuff we know...

• The pharmacy service will be re-commissioned once again next season – for 2014/15
• The service will be extended to include vaccination of children aged 2, 3 & 4 years via the Fluenz vaccine which is a nasal spray
• Possible extensions to service include: Pneumococcal, Shingles and Pertussis for pregnancy.

London Wide Influenza PGD Commissioning

The Pharmacy London Flu Team has just released a statement saying that they are in the process of finalizing a contract with the NHS which will see ALL pharmacies in London commissioned for influenza vaccine provision. This means that if a pharmacist is appropriately trained using an accredited influenza training provider such as PharmaDoctor they will be paid to offer the service to at risk groups. These groups include:

• Anyone over the age of 65 
• Pregnant women 
• People with an underlying health conditions (particularly long-term heart or respiratory disease) 
• People with weakened immune systems

The reimbursement for providing the service as of yet has not been finalised however, there is talk that this will be equivalent to GP reimbursement. We strongly recommend that you come to one of our PharmaDoctor training days, we have the shortest training time and in addition to the influenza PGD pharmacists also can administer Hepatitis B and Meningitis.