Vaccines for Seasonal Flu 2024/25

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JCVI Guidance

see JCVI Statement on Influenza Vaccines 2024-25_updated_20240612.pdf | Powered by Box

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Adult Flu Vaccines

No changes were recommended by JCVI for adult flu vaccines for 2024 to 2025. Providers should ensure that they have ordered adequate supplies of the recommended vaccines to vaccinate all eligible individuals included within this letter.

The following vaccines will be reimbursed for adults in the programme:

[note 1] As in previous years, aQIV may be offered ‘off-label’ to those who become 65 years of age before 31 March 2025.

[note 2] Sanofi have advised that the Recombinant Quadrivalent Influenza vaccine [QIVr] will, due to a manufacturing issue, not be available for the flu vaccination programme for the 2024/25 season.

The original JCVI recommendation was to use QIVr for adults aged 65 years and over, and also adults aged 16 to 64 who are in eligible groups.

As QIVr is only licensed for those aged 18 and over, this does not affect the immunisation programme for younger patients. For practices who have ordered QIVr, and who are participating in the 2024/25 immunisation programme, the primary alternative is QIV-HD [high dose quadrivalent influenza vaccine] which is licensed in the UK for those 60 and over. Otherwise, practices may seek to order additional supplies of aQIV [Adjuvanted Quadrivalent Influenza Vaccine] for those aged 65 and over, and QIVc [Cell-based Quadrivalent Influenza Vaccine] for those under 65 years.

NHS England have updated the list of influenza vaccines marketed in the UK.

Children Flu Vaccines

Eligibility for flu vaccination is based on the advice and recommendations of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). This includes a vaccination programme for children based on JCVI’s 2012 recommendation, using live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) which provides individual protection to the child and reduces transmission in the wider population.

Practices may under the 2024/25 Seasonal Influenza ES offer their frontline patient- facing staff an influenza vaccination. This forms part of employer occupational health responsibilities and can be provided either by the employing practice or under other arrangements, for example through an occupational health provider or influenza voucher scheme with a community pharmacy.

Where eligible frontline patient-facing staff are administered an influenza vaccination by their employing practice, as a non-registered patient, the practice will not be eligible for reimbursement of the influenza vaccine cost nor an IoS payment. This is with the exception of where the eligible frontline patient-facing staff member is:

i) eligible under the NHS influenza programme due to age or clinical risk AND is a registered patient at their employing practice, or

ii) a GP locum

With the exception of a GP locum as set out in section 2 of this guidance, practices must not use the INT status to record influenza vaccinations administered to their eligible frontline patient-facing staff.

Vaccine Ordering and Supply

We are aware that your stock order has been in place for some time and recognise the complexity for practices when calculating the volume of stock for their Seasonal Flu campaign; made more complex by the introduction of targeted vaccines across specific age groups.

A practice may wish to review their performance year on year. This may include the increasing pharmacy provision, historical vaccine uptake levels (including contraindications and decline rates), the profit to the practice and the return thresholds, and the ability to secure your preferred delivery dates.

Every year the JCVI reviews the latest evidence on influenza vaccines and recommends the type of vaccine to be offered to patients. Considering the reduced fee of £7.54 for the delivery of Covid-19 and the significant rise in staff costs over recent years, providers should come to an economic decision in relation to participation in both the flu and Covid-19 programmes. There is no contractual requirement to participate with these programmes. The LMC is concerned that many practices were left with unused (and unreturnable) flu vaccines following the 2023/24 season which will have influenced and affected many practices ordering decisions for the 2024/25 year, again creating a risk for the national programme.

Personal Administration Fee (NHSBSA)

Practices can continue to claim for locally procured influenza vaccine costs and personal administration (PA) fees in accordance with the General Medical Services Statement of Financial Entitlements (SFE) and using the established systems for doing so.

For the avoidance of doubt, influenza vaccine reimbursement claims are to be submitted by individual practices only and not by a PCN grouping / PCN.

Collaborating practices administering influenza vaccinations as part of either an Influenza Collaboration or COVID-19 Collaboration (i.e., co-administration or synergistic delivery of influenza vaccinations with COVID-19 vaccinations) will need to agree between them how the collaborating practices will individually claim reimbursement, and any associated PA fee for any administered influenza vaccines they have contributed.

Vaccine Payments

Payment of IOS £10.06 shall be payable to the Practice for administration of each influenza vaccination (note: pharmacists receive a slightly reduced payment of £9.58 for each adult vaccinated).Contractual compliance requirements for all commissioned NHS flu vaccination providers will state that to receive payment for flu administration and reimbursement of flu vaccine practices will need to use both the specified flu vaccines for the appropriate cohort(s) and adhere to the authorised timelines for delivery.

Commissioners will seek to reclaim any payments made outside of the above.

Claims for activity related to the administration of influenza vaccinations only must be submitted on the relevant system as soon as possible. Practices must validate and submit a claim to the Commissioner for payment within three months of the date of the administration of the completing dose of the vaccine (see Section 11 Payment and Validation of the Seasonal Influenza ES).

Where an influenza vaccination is co-administered with a COVID-19 vaccination, then claims must be submitted within three months of the date of the administration of the completing dose of the vaccine.

More Payment and Validation information can be found here.

Deregistered Patients Payment Issue

The LMC is aware of an issue which relates to the payment of vaccination Item of Service (IoS) fees when a patient deregisters or registers at a new practice after receiving a vaccination but before the CQRS system extracts the claim. The CQRS extraction is automated and only recognises data associated with ‘currently registered patients’. According to Para. 19(2)(a) of the Statement of Financial Entitlements (SFE), payments can only be made if the patient is registered with the contractor at the time of extraction. This means that if a patient is not registered with the practice when the CQRS extraction occurs, the practice cannot receive payment, even if they administered the vaccine.

By contrast Section 11.2.1 of the 2024/25 Seasonal Flu Enhanced Service states that payment should be made if the patient was registered at the time of vaccination. However, this may not be recognised by the CQRS extraction process. This creates a discrepancy between the Enhanced Service requirements and the SFE, leading to potential non-payment for vaccinations administered by a practice if the patient has since deregistered.

NHS England is aware of this issue and acknowledges that not all vaccinations are identified by CQRS extractions at new practices, resulting in no payment being made.

Recording Vaccinations

The Monitoring, reporting and vaccine ordering and reporting Guidance covers off coding requirements for the administration of flu, and flu and Covid-19 when part of a collaboration. Including IOS and Personally Administered (PA) claiming processes.

For NHSBSA PA hints & tips and record keeping advice, please look here: 2024-25 seasonal flu vaccine reimbursement | NHSBSA

Vaccine Storage Considerations

Check that you are satisfied with your fridge performance and whether it is due for a calibration or service.
Turn on and check any clinical fridges which are used for large seasonal vaccination campaigns, allow enough time for servicing if required and record temperatures leading up to the flu vaccines arrival.
Consider best practice when monitoring your fridge temperatures; check that you have robust mechanisms for recording of fridge temperatures and the ability to identify where a fault has occurred remember stability data, i.e., how routinely are you checking the fridge.
You may wish to refresh your emergency procedures and have these accessible near fridges so that everyone knows what to do in the event of a fridge failure.
If you have more than one clinical fridge you may wish to consider how you can mitigate the risk of vaccine loss in the event of a fridge failure, by distributing the stock between the clinical fridges you have at your disposal.
Do you have enough fridge capacity?

Maintenance of Cold Chain:

You may wish to check that you have suitable cold storage containers to transport the vaccines and a methodology to sign in/out vaccines.
Consider any duration of time or a threshold that the vaccines must be used within to assure that the cold chain is maintained.
Sharing of vaccine fridges may be an option so long as there is no storing with other items other than vaccines; the vaccines will need to be well identified, and daily temperature checks are documented, as per guidance.
Do not forget to plan for any fridge malfunctioning.

Flu vaccines: 2024 to 2025 flu season - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Information on the different types of flu vaccines available for the 2024 to 2025 flu season and the clinical risk groups that they apply to can be found here. This link also includes a poster showing the packaging of the different types of flu vaccines available for the 2024 to 2025 flu season which can be used by healthcare professionals who administer the flu vaccine.

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Updated on Friday 17 January 2025

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