GP practices will be paid £5.25 to administer each dose of swine flu vaccine, the Department of Health has announced.
It is currently expected that patients will receive two doses of the vaccine, meaning practices will receive £10.50 per patient.
Initially the swine flu vaccination programme, which is expected to begin in the autumn, will target the nine million people most at risk of flu complications. People will be prioritised in the following order:
- People aged over six months and under 65 years in current seasonal flu vaccine clinical at-risk groups (about 5 million people).
- All pregnant women, subject to licensing conditions on trimesters (about 0.5 million people).
- Household contacts of people with compromised immune systems, for example people in regular close contact with patients receiving cancer treatment (about 0.5 million people).
- People aged 65 and over in the current seasonal flu vaccine clinical at-risk groups (about 3.5 million people). This does not include otherwise healthy over 65s, since they appear to have some natural immunity to the virus.
Under the deal negotiated with the BMA’s GPs committee patient experience targets under the Quality Outcomes Framework (QOF) will be lowered if practices achieve a given uptake in vaccination – the precise level of which is still being negotiated.
In addition the QOF will not change in 2010-2011. Indicators recommended by NICE for retirement (28 points) will now be released in 2011-2012. Meanwhile NICE will pilot suggested new indicators and, if appropriate, include them in their recommendations for future indicators
The collection date for data on childhood immunisations will also be delayed by six weeks to mid February under the deal to allow practices time to carry out the flu vaccination programme.
The money to fund the programme will come from the Department of Health’s budget and is to help surgeries contact patients, administer the vaccine and, if necessary, take on extra staff.
Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of the BMA’s GPs committee said: “We are pleased we have reached a national agreement as we believe this is the best way to deliver the vaccine to the at risk population. This will be a lot of additional work for practices, but general practice is used to running large vaccination programmes. We are confident that GPs and their teams will have the resources they need in order to run the swine flu vaccination programme smoothly and efficiently.”
Health Secretary Andy Burnham said: “"I am glad that we have reached a fair deal with the GPC and I am pleased that GPs will continue to play a key role in the fight against swine flu. They have already worked incredibly hard in what have been very difficult circumstances to help their patients. This deal represents good value for money as the vaccine programme will reduce the number of people who will need hospital treatment.”