Flu Vaccination Advanced Service

The 2022/23 service will commence on Thursday 1^st September 2022.

The annual flu letter for the 2022/23 season was published on 22nd April 2022 with a statement of amendment on 21st July 2022 – see here.

The annual flu letter confirms the eligible cohorts for the 2022/23 season. The statement of amendment was issued following the announcement, (on the 15th July 2022), that in addition to the flu vaccine cohorts previously set out in the Annual Flu Letter 2022/23, the programme will be expanded to include everyone aged 50 and over (reversing the initial decision not to include the 50-64 year old cohort within the 2022/23 annual flu vaccination programme). Please see here for further details on this latest announcement.

The service specification (published 16th August 2022) describes the requirements for provision of the service and is essential reading for all pharmacists providing the service.

The national PGD provides the legal framework for administration of a flu vaccine, (by appropriately trained practitioners), under the 2022/23 service. Pharmacy contractors providing the service must ensure that all pharmacists providing the service have read and understood this latest version of the PGD, (valid from 1st September 2022), and have completed the practitioner declaration to confirm this, which should then also be signed off by the Authorising Manager. These steps MUST be completed before an individual practitioner is authorised to administer flu vaccines as part of the service.

Work to finalise the national protocol for 2022/23 is still ongoing and this is expected to be published shortly.  (PSNC will inform contractors once this is available through its usual communication channels). Please always refer to the PSNC Flu Vaccination Hub here for the latest information about the service.

Flu Vaccine Ordering for the 2022/23 Flu Vaccination Programme

Please refer to the flu reimbursement letter for the 2022/23 season– see here.

While the reimbursable vaccines for the coming season remain unchanged, there are changes to the first line vaccination recommendations. It is important that all contractors that provide the Flu Vaccination Service review the contents of the letter and use the information contained within to inform their ordering of flu vaccine for the season ahead.

Recommended Vaccines for 2022/23

As set out in the flu reimbursement letter for 22/23, the following recommended vaccines should be used for their respective adult patient groups:

Briefing Documents and Resources

• PSNC Briefing 025/22: Guidance on the 22/23 Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Advanced Service/
• Reimbursable Vaccines & Eligible Cohorts 22-23 – Updated July 22
• Annual Flu Letter 2022/23 & Statement of Amendment
• Covid-19 Autumn Booster & Flu Vaccine Programme Expansion – NHSE&I letter 15 July 2022
• Ovalbumin Content of Flu Vaccines for 2022-23
• Flu Vaccination Programme – Information for Health Care Practitioners
• Chapter 19 of the Immunisation Against Infectious Disease, “The Green Book”, can be downloaded here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/influenza-the-green-book-chapter-19.
• Flu Vaccines Poster 22-23 Season

Training requirements for 2022/23 have been updated to allow more flexibility for contractors and pharmacists. Please refer to the PSNC website here.

2022/23 flu season training resources – updated training and information resources for healthcare practitioners have been published on the annual flu programme webpage . These include:

• The National Flu Immunisation Programme 22-23 Slide Set
• The Flu Vaccination Programme 2022 to 2023: Information for Healthcare Practitioners

The flu vaccination e-learning programme has also been updated for the forthcoming flu season and is available at Flu Immunisation – elearning for healthcare (e-lfh.org.uk)

Service Delivery Resources – Promoting the Service to Patients

Please refer to the PSNC website here.

Claiming Payment

All payments must be claimed monthly via the NHSBSA Manage Your Service (MYS) portal. See the NHSBSA animation on how to submit your flu vaccination claim on MYS.

PharmOutcomes will be able to pre-populate claim information in MYS each month, so that the contractor then just needs to login to MYS at the start of the following month to confirm that the information is correct and then to submit the claim.

Claims for the 2022/23 flu season will be accepted by the NHSBSA within three months of administration of the vaccination or by 30^th June 2023, whichever date is earlier, in accordance with the usual Drug Tariff claims process. Later claims will not be processed. Payments to contractors will be made monthly as part of their normal payment schedule.

See PSNC page on claiming payments here if further information is required.

Frequently Asked Questions

The PSNC website is a great source of information and resources for pharmacy teams. This includes a useful Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and answers page which are updated on an ongoing basis:

Flu Vaccination FAQs

Flu Collaboration

Community Pharmacy West Yorkshire regularly liaises with the Local Medical Committees (LMCs) within West Yorkshire, and as in previous years, we have offered to collaborate with the LMCs to produce a joint LMC/LPC flu letter to encourage general practices and community pharmacies to work together in supporting each other’s flu campaign.

Please see below joint flu letters that have been agreed for 2022/23.

Bradford

CPWY and YORLMC Joint Flu Letter 2022/23

Calderdale

CPWY and Calderdale LMC Joint Flu Letter 2022/23

Leeds

CPWY and Leeds LMC Joint Flu Letter 2022/23

Kirklees

CPWY and Kirklees LMC Joint Flu Letter 2022/23

Wakefield

CPWY and Wakefield LMC Joint Flu Letter 2022/23

Last Updated: 14th September 2022