Background

To protect the population (particularly older adults and infants) this winter, a new immunisation programme against Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is being introduced in September 2024. RSV is a leading cause of GP appointments, hospitalisations, ICU stays and deaths every year in the UK.

To address the increasing number of vaccine-avoidable Pertussis (whooping cough) infant deaths, there will be a range of catch-up activities to drive uptake of the vaccination in pregnant women and improve records of these events.

Both programmes will be carried out in a range of clinical settings, meaning that we must have a way to flow a record of a vaccination from Data Processing Service (DPS) to Patients’ registered GP Practices by the start of the RSV campaign in September. This will enable accurate records, including to support the response to vaccine adverse reaction and help avoid duplicate vaccination of Patients.

Planned strategic data flow developments will not be in place to meet the needs of these programmes, so we need an alternative in place for September. 

We have applied updates to the Requirements and Documentation sections inline with the updated structure for DSIC Standards.

Outline Plan

• Existing GP Practice Solutions to receive RSV and Pertussis Vaccinations via Digital Medicines and Pharmacy FHIR Payload for ingestion, by 01/09/2024

  • Please allow 1 month for NHSE assurance.

• NHSE Vaccination Digital Services (VDS) team to send a sample file to the Suppliers by 01/07/2024 followed by additional files to support assurance once the full list of Product and Procedure Codes are defined, currently targeting end 31/07/2024.

• The Digital Medicines and Pharmacy FHIR Payload specification remains unchanged and therefore, RSV and Pertussis will look the same as COVID and Flu, with the exception of two new titles, a new Procedure, Product Terms and Codes.

  • <title value="RSV Vaccination Record"/>

  • <title value="Pertussis Vaccination Record"/>

Note: this change is for Suppliers of services which ARE currently deployed into an operational environment only.

Summary of Change

Full Specification

Digital Medicines and Pharmacy FHIR Payload v3.0.0

Assurance Approach

Digital Medicines and Pharmacy FHIR Payload FHIR Vaccinations flow – NHS England to GP Practice Solution

• In Scope

  • Assure that the GP Practice Solution can auto-ingest new vaccination records into their system, displaying them correctly and uncorrupted.

  • Assure uploading of information to Summary Care Record (SCR).

  • Assure that the GP Practice Solution can ingest vaccination records into their system, allowing relevant staff to assess the updates and perform ingestion.

  • Update of clinical safety documentation and complete clinical assurance to secure Clinical Authority To Release (CATR).

• Out-of-Scope for NHS England central assurance but expected to be in-scope of Supplier’s own internal testing and assurance  

  • Non-functional assurance e.g. can the Suppliers support the expected volumes due to the additional load of RSV and Pertussis Vaccinations data. Supplier expected to provide self-certifying statement(s) as confirmatory evidence.

  • Transfer of RSV and Pertussis Vaccinations data in the GP2GP transfers. Supplier expected to provide self-certifying statement(s) as confirmatory evidence.

  • Provisioning of the RSV and Pertussis Vaccinations data to the consumer suppliers through the existing GP Connect API capabilities and IM1 capabilities. Supplier expected to provide self-certifying statement(s) as confirmatory evidence.

  • Migration of the RSV and Pertussis Vaccinations data in the data extracts for GP Practice migrations. Supplier expected to provide self-certifying statement(s) as confirmatory evidence.

  • Regression testing to confirm no adverse impact on compliance of the existing capabilities, overarching standards and interoperability standards. Supplier expected to provide self-certifying statement(s) as confirmatory evidence.

  • Any other data flows downstream of the GP Practice.