Pharmacies in Leeds are piloting electronic notifications of flu vaccinations for GP practices.
The pilot, which started on 14 October, covers pharmacies using PharmOutcomes software and GP practices using SystmOne. It allows data on vaccinations to enter patients’ GP records automatically, rather than having to be entered manually, improving accuracy and avoiding practices unnecessarily contacting patients.
At present, pharmacies inform GPs about vaccinations by email, fax or post. Under the pilot, practices will still receive PDF notifications as well as their systems being updated automatically.
NHS Digital said the pilot will involve around 800 messages sent over at least two weeks. If it is successful the messaging will stay in place for participants. The organisation will then extend the service nationally to other pharmacies and GP practices using PharmOutcomes and SystmOne, with users of other software following later.
Data standard
The notifications are based a flu vaccination data standard developed with the Professional Record Standards Body and primary care clinicians.
Separately, NHS Digital announced a data visualisation competition on health and care inequalities, held in partnership with the Nuffield Trust and British Medical Journal. Entrants are asked to visualise NHS Digital data, with the organisation suggesting information on lifestyles, mortality, social care and disease prevalence.
Image of NHS staff receiving flu jabs: NHS Employers under a Creative Commons licence
