The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has reminded Community pharmacy contractors to ensure that the correct flu vaccines(QIVe) are being used for each patient cohort.
The pharmacies have also been asked to ensure that they recorded accurately in the patient’s clinical record for the NHS Flu Vaccination Service.
The move was followed by PSNC after the cases where the standard egg-cultured quadrivalent influenza vaccine (QIVe) was administered in the 65 years and over patient cohort.
PSNC said: “On investigation, it appears that a number of these errors are due to data input errors; however, it is important to be careful when selecting a flu vaccine for this patient cohort as there is no provision for the use of the QIVe vaccine in patients aged 65 years and over in the NHS Flu Vaccination Service.”
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization has advised it is not an effective intervention for patients aged 65 years and over.
Contractors should be aware that NHS England will not reimburse or remunerate incidences where the wrong vaccination has been administered.
Sukhi Basra
