Free flu vaccine eligibility for under 65s

The Ventures data services team has developed new reporting to make it easier for practices to identify patients who are eligible for free flu vaccination.  

The 2021 funded flu immunisation programme began on 14 April for people aged 65 years and over. The programme’s focus is on immunising people who are eligible for a funded vaccination first, to help protect people at greatest risk.  

From 17 May under 65s who meet the eligibility criteria can also be vaccinated. The eligibility criteria is complex and historically it has been challenging for practices to identify patients who should be called in for a vaccination.  

Next week Pinnacle practices using indici, MedTech 32 or MedTech Evolution practice management systems will be sent a new report identifying potentially eligible patients who have not yet been vaccinated. This report draws on a wide range of data to provide the best possible picture of our vulnerable populations who need preventative care.  

• From 10 May practices will be sent a weekly report via Healthlink. 
• The report will include all three eligibility groups (65+, under 65, and under 5). 
• Eligibility has been assessed based on data shared between practice management systems, coding shared with Pinnacle in its role as a PHO, and DHB data about hospitalisation.  
• Practices will need to follow their usual processes to confirm patient eligibility and call in patients for vaccination. 

Testing the report with one practice has proven a high level of accuracy, and demonstrated its usefulness in both reaching more people and saving time for clinicians. However, due to the complexity of the data, it’s best to consider the report a useful starting point.

Dr Jo Scott-Jones, medical director, Pinnacle MHN, says the new report is a huge opportunity to improve population health. “Previously we could identify people over 65, but it was really difficult to identify others who were eligible. For example, children who have been admitted to hospital for significant illness, people on immunosuppressants, or with asthma, COPD, chronic kidney disease or significant cancer are all eligible. These people are much more vulnerable to serious complications if they contract influenza. Developing report queries for each separate group was complex and time consuming, meaning these people were mostly only vaccinated on an opportunistic basis.” 

The Ventures data services team has been working on long-term improvements to our ability to process and query data. “Over the past few years we’ve moved from a traditional data warehouse to a more modern data lake concept that allows us to process data from disparate sources,” says Alex Poor, chief data officer. 

“We now have much better ability to develop meaningful reports to support targeted service delivery. In 2020 we drew on the data lake to help us understand the patient groups who were more at risk of contracting COVID-19. We’ve taken that idea further to provide practices with these lists of patients eligible for free flu vaccination, and we’ll also be sharing a summary view with district health boards.”

With 84 out of 87 Pinnacle practices now using either indici, MedTech 32 or MedTech Evolution, this report covers the majority of the network. We hope this data will help practices maximise the reach of the flu vaccine before the general population starts receiving COVID-19 vaccination in July. Ensuring vulnerable people receive their flu vaccination early in the season gives them the best chance of avoiding illness.  

If you have any questions or feedback on improving the flu vaccine eligibility report, please get in touch.