Organising your flu campaign for 2019

Jacqui Perfect, an experienced practice manager and member of our GP Support team, shares her top tips for the flu vaccination season.

It’s that time of year again when the practice needs to get the flu campaign up and running. To help you achieve the best results for your practices, we’ve drafted these top tips. Some of you may have already adopted these, but for those of you new to this campaign, we hope you find the information useful.

We recognise that reaching target (75% for patients 65 and over for 2019) is becoming more difficult each year.

1. Engage the whole practice team

As part of the DES specification, you will have nominated a ‘flu lead’, but this campaign is a wonderful opportunity to involve the whole practice team, getting everyone to play an active part. This helps ensure that all eligible patients are offered the vaccine and that patients are further educated on the importance of being vaccinated. It will also share the load of delivering the service whilst consolidating a collaborative team achievement.

  • Ensure that receptionists are familiar with who should be offered the vaccine and why.
  • Impart the importance of recording the details on the clinical system – provide the team with the correct codes, including coding for vaccines administered elsewhere or dissent codes for those who do not wish to have it.
  • Have flu achievement updates as a standard agenda item on the regular team meetings and/or send weekly emails showing the figures.
  • Provide lots of encouragement to the team on their uptake achievements.

Recording this information early on avoids time being wasted chasing patients who have had it elsewhere or who have dissented from having the vaccine.

2. Market the campaign

You should have received your flu packs. Items such as banners and posters can be displayed outside the practice (railings/gates/walls) as well as inside and on windows too.

Don’t forget to utilise the inside of the patient loo to reach a captive audience!

Include flu messages on your:

  • Website
  • Jayex boards
  • TV screens
  • Twitter / Facebook
  • Telephone message
  • Right hand side of prescription
  • Text messages
  • Practice health champions/volunteers to promote the importance of being vaccinated.

Ensure that any designated ‘open flu clinics’ are offered on a selection of days and times to provide the best access for patients, eg, weekends and evenings. Make sure to incorporate this information in your marketing materials. 

3. Start early

Start vaccinating patients as soon as practicable. Aim to complete immunisation of all eligible patients before flu starts to circulate and ideally by end of November.

Run your searches to identify lists of:

  • All eligible patients.
  • Housebound patients who will require a visit so that you can gauge numbers and staffing accordingly.
  • Patients who went elsewhere to have their flu vaccines last year.
  • The most difficult cohorts to reach – these could be the newer ‘at risk’ groups who have not previously had the vaccine.

By contacting the patients in the last two bullet points first and encouraging them to attend, you will use less time and resources inviting patients who attend each year regardless of invitation. Continuously assess uptake and plan how to direct resources for the remainder of the campaign.

4. Record the information – make it easier for the team

  • Ensure that templates on your clinical system have been set up and require minimum keystrokes for staff to record the information, including vaccine batch numbers, expiry dates, site of the vaccine (eg, left or right arm), manufacturer (your system provider should be able to help with this).
  • Provide laminated flow charts in clinical rooms detailing eligibility and the relevant vaccines to administer.
  • Enable clinical system pop-ups or major alerts for eligible patients.
  • Ensure that information received from pharmacies who have vaccinated your patients is received and recorded in a timely manner. If this involves data capture via Sonar Informatics, check that you are registered with them to view this information. Email info@sonarinformatics.com for further information.

5. Undertake effective stock management and storage 

6. Use the available resources 

Last updated : 23 Oct 2019

 

NHS delivery plan for tackling the Covid-19 backlog of care (22 Feb 2022)

The long-awaited NHS elective recovery plan was published in full earlier this month and sets out plans to tackle England’s elective care backlog over the next three years. The...
Read more »

Contacting patients with BT phone lines and ‘Call Protect’ (22 Feb 2022)

Patients with a BT landline may be knowingly or unknowingly opted into a service called ‘Call Protect’ which prevents some practice phone systems calling them properly. Affected practices will find...
Read more »

COPI Notices extended for a further three months until 30 June 2022 (22 Feb 2022)

Simon Madden, Director of Data Policy at NHSX ,on behalf of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, notified GP practices on 10 February 2022 that the COPI...
Read more »

End of free Covid-19 testing and mandatory self-isolation (22 Feb 2022)

On 21 February the Prime Minister announced the end of Covid restrictions and most support measures. Including: From 24 February people who test positive for Covid-19 will no longer...
Read more »

General practice issues in Parliament - February 2022 (21 Feb 2022)

For our February 2022 newsletter we round up recent activity happening in Westminster that affects general practice. Local councillors on Integrated Care Boards On the 9 February, Lord Kamall, Parliamentary...
Read more »

Mayor’s research – registering patients without proof of address or ID (21 Feb 2022)

The Greater London Authority, on behalf of the Mayor of London, is urgently seeking participants for research into barriers faced by GP surgeries when registering new patients without proof of...
Read more »

5–11-year-old Covid-19 vaccination (21 Feb 2022)

NHS England has confirmed the eligibility of this new cohort, saying that they expect primary care networks to vaccinate at-risk 5-11 year olds and community pharmacy to be the primary...
Read more »

Owning your practice premises - the essentials, February 2022 (03 Feb 2022)

Thursday 24 February 2022: 1.30pm to 4.30pm £95 per delegate for Londonwide practices £120 per delegate for practices from other areas This workshop is ideal for practices whose...
Read more »

Vaccination as Condition of Deployment (VCOD) measures set to be cancelled (01 Feb 2022)

Regulations requiring healthcare workers to be fully vaccinated by 1 April should no longer be applied, the Health Secretary Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP announced to Parliament on the evening...
Read more »

Waltham Forest LMC news update (31 Jan 2022)

Please click here to read the latest Waltham Forest LMC news update.
Read more »
Next Page »
« Previous Page