Pharmacies set to send electronic flu vaccination notification to patients' GPs

Community pharmacies are set to send electronic notification of a flu vaccination to the patient’s GP within the next few weeks, the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has said.

The latest facility would allow pharmacists to send notifications from their systems to GP practice systems to improve patients’ experiences, care outcomes, and to bring other health-related benefits.

“Electronic notifications are sent automatically from pharmacies which use the Sonar Informatics and PharmOutcomes systems and they are received by GP practices as a workflow task. Some GP systems can receive structured information, which means details can be added directly to a patient’s record, without the information having to be manually transcribed,” the pharmacy negotiator has said.

These electronic notifications are currently available for the urgent supply of medicines made as part of the Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) and pharmacy administered flu vaccinations.

GP practices using TPP SystmOne can receive notifications for both services.

GP practices using EMIS Web can receive urgent supply notifications. Notifications for flu vaccinations are being enabled during October and November 2020.

“For pharmacy teams, the way flu vaccinations are recorded in their system will not change as notifications are sent automatically to a patient’s registered GP practice,” the PSNC has said.

“Not all GP systems can yet receive the notifications, but your pharmacy IT system will check prior to sending a message and it will revert to the existing method for transmission, normally NHSmail, if the practice is not enabled.”

Earlier, the Professional Record Standards Body (PRSB) worked with NHS Digital, PSNC, clinicians from across primary care, and others to develop several standards for electronic transfer of information which could be sent from pharmacy to GP practice systems.