Novartis Vaccines have communicated this positive news on their new flu vaccine price reduction.
 

• The Novartis flu vaccines price will be reduced to £4.39/dose
• Minimum order is 20 doses and top up orders have also to be minimum of 20 doses.
• Early deliveries will be available (OPTAFLU® only) from w/e 5th September to w/e 26th September – please note early delivery slots are allocated on a first come, first served basis. AGRIPPAL® availability from w/e 19th of September.
• The Flu training costs remain unchanged.

We have updated the Vaccines order form on the Northern pharmacy website with a new form that shows the new prices and delivery times.  You can also access this by clicking HERE 

Should you wish to use Novartis vaccines you will need to send this form in along with the new customer account form 

Full details of where you need to send these forms is available on the Northern Pharmacy Webpage.

These forms need returning by 8th August in order to receive stock in the early deliveries.

If you have already submitted your flu vaccines order, your order will automatically be charged at the new, lower price of £4.39.

If you have already placed an order and would like an earlier delivery date, please email Novartis Customer Services Team at: service.uk@novartis.com. Please include in the email, your pharmacy details and that their your order was an NHS Commissioning Flu Order

For any questions, please contact  info.partnerships@novartis.com

Advertising of the flu vaccination service
 
The early agreement to commission the flu vaccination service from community pharmacies provides you with the ideal opportunity to let your patients know that you will be offering this service. Now is the time to start raising awareness. Have you thought about the following: 

• Put stickers or leaflets on prescription bags awaiting collection advertising your flu service. Stickers are available from the NPA. When handing out prescription medicines, this provides an opportunity to start a discussion with patients about their vaccination needs.
• Have a list of medication which patients in clinical at risk target groups may be taking next to your dispensary computer, so your staff generating dispensing labels know to target the prescription with a sticker / leaflet.
• Use your PMR to search for patients in clinical risk groups and send them a letter inviting them to the pharmacy for their flu vaccination. This could be posted or get your delivery driver to drop letters through their door. A personal invitation can have a significant impact.

Remind patients of pharmacy’s unique selling point – they can drop into the pharmacy for their vaccination at a time convenient to them. They don’t need to attend the flu clinic at their GP practice at the stated times. They can drop in or book an appointment with you at their convenience.
 
The marketing section of the flu website www.northernpharmacy.net has been reopened. It currently has last year’s marketing materials available for you to use.

The LPCs are currently investigating new materials and when these are available, this section of the website will be updated.
 
The LPCs are also investigating radio advertising to support your flu vaccination service this year. Once patients are in the pharmacy, it’s up to you and your team to raise the subject of vaccination with them but radio advertising will help to increase the footfall through your door. Not all patients necessarily know that pharmacies offer flu vaccination services.
 
It is essential that we see a significant increase in the number of patients in clinical risk groups and pregnant women being vaccinated this year. The level of update has increased only slightly over the last two years and we’re still well short of achieving the target of 75% coverage.
 
Training

You can use any training provider to equip you with the necessary skills and competence to undertake the NHS flu vaccination service. Some service providers will also provide you with a private PGD which will allow you to vaccinate at a cost, any person who wants a flu vaccination.
 
For those who want to access the LPC commissioned training provided by Novartis Vaccines, please check the flu website www.northernpharmacy.net  to check the training criteria. In summary,
 
You require live training if this is your first year of providing the service.

You require live training if you trained for the first time last year and administered less than 50 vaccinations.

You require online only training if you trained for the first time last year and administered 50 or more vaccinations.

You require online only training if you have completed two consecutive years of live training (number of vaccinations is irrelevant).
 
The first live training session is this Sunday, 27th July commencing 9am for a 9.30 start at the Holiday Inn, Seaton Burn. The training lasts 3.5 hours. There are currently two places left. The remaining live training sessions are Monday 11th August at the Quality Hotel, Boldon and Tuesday 19th August at the Holiday Inn, Seaton Burn. Both commence at 6pm for a 6.30 start.
 
The LPCs are pleased to be able to offer the training at the same price as last year, £27.50 for online only and £75 for live training.
 
Stock

If you are using the Novartis training, you can set up a direct account with them for supply of vaccines. On booking your training place, the confirmation email will include two forms, one for setting up an account with Novartis Vaccines and one to place your first order for a minimum of 20 vaccines. This stock is priced at £5 per vaccine and is ring fenced stock for pharmacy. Following your initial order, you can order stock in multiples of 10 vaccines. Orders placed by noon will be delivered the following day.
 
The NHS PGD will allow for the use of any flu vaccine. If you are also providing a private vaccination service, you need to check the PGD to identify if a specific manufacturer’s vaccine must be supplied as part of the service.
 
NHS documentation
 
The SLA and PGD will be uploaded to the flu website www.northernpharmacy.net as soon as the documents are available in their final format. You will need to print and sign both documents, retaining the PGD in the pharmacy and sending a copy of the SLA to the NHS England area team. Contact details will be provided.
 
PharmOutcomes

Training and vaccination details will again be captured on PharmOutcomes. You will be notified when the services are available. On completion of your training details on PharmOutcomes, you will then be accredited to provide the vaccination service and this service will then be available for you to record the vaccinations you have completed. This will provide an audit trail, service data and invoicing for the service. The service will not be available to you until you complete your training and include the details on the PharmOutcomes module.
 
If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact us

Darlington, Co Durham and Tees Area Team (AT) has confirmed that a community pharmacy influenza vaccination service will be commissioned again for the 2014/15 and 2015/16 flu seasons. The AT has informed the LPC that the scheme for 2014/15 will be broadly along the same lines as the 2013/14 scheme with some refinements based on learning from the season just gone.

There is a meeting of the AT’s flu steering group on 30 June after which further details (e.g. training requirements) will be available. The LPC will contact you again with more information as soon as possible, in the meantime we thought that you would appreciate as much notice as possible that the service will be recommissioned this year so you can begin to give consideration to making the necessary arrangements.

The LPC is delighted to announce  that  the CNTW (Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear) directorate of commissioning plan to commission pharmacists in the region to deliver the adult seasonal flu programme again in 2014/15.  

This will build on the excellent work last year when 49% of the pharmacies in CNTW delivered 15,603 seasonal flu immunisations – a 95% increase on performance in 2012/13.  
Overall the a total of 400,000 flu immunisations were delivered in CNTW in 13/14.

Claire Bradford, Head of Public Health, CNTW Area Team said "We hope that we can build on the excellent work from last year.  We want to focus on increasing the uptake in the under 65 at risk groups and pregnant women.  Last year across CNTW the overall uptake in under 65s at risk was 56.4% and pregnant women 42.2%.  Whilst we have good uptake in the over 65 year age group (75.7%) we need to reach many more of the under 65s at risk and pregnant women.  We think that pharmacies are well placed to increase uptake in these groups. Flu immunisation of pregnant women : reduces rates of influenza among pregnant women; may reduce the likelihood of prematurity and smaller infant weight at birth; provides passive immunity against flu to infants in the first few months of life."

The LPC are working with the area team on the detail of the service  and will make this available as soon as we can in the meantime we would like to take this opportunity to encourage ALL pharmacies to consider offering the service this year and start their preparations from now.

This is a fantastic opportunity for Community Pharmacy and  we would like to see all pharmacies in the area signed up to the service and help to make an impact on the uptake to immunisations.

Below is some information for you start preparing for this years service.  Should you have any queries please contact us.

As detail released we will update this site.

Training
If you have access to flu training (In house or via a training organisation) please make sure you get yourself trained or registered for training as soon as you can.  The LPC will be working with Novartis again this year to offer training.  Details for this will follow shortly.

Stock
We would also encourage you make arrangements from now to ensure you have adequate stocks of Vaccine.  

PharmOutcomes
Make sure you have got access to PharmOutcomes. 

Current Flu Information
Below are some flu related links for your information.
The national DH flu guidance/letter is now available online at  https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/316007/FluImmunisationLetter2014_accessible.pdf
The at risk groups this year include people with learning disabilities. This week’s vaccine update includes link to posters which can be used 
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/320026/8905_PHE_VU_216_June2014_07.pdf

There is now a marketing page open on the site to help you to advertise your flu service.
The page can be accessed from here

The latest information for the flu service for Gateshead,  South Tyneside, Sunderland and North of Tyne LPC Area can be found below.  Please be sure to read it carefully and action the points in red below.

NHS Service

At this point, due to circumstances beyond our control, we do not have the NHS service specification, contract or PGD. We are waiting for these documents from the NHS England area team. We can tell you that we have agreed that the service will be remunerated at £12 per vaccination. Whilst the LPCs locally are disappointed that this is less than previous years and could be viewed as the fee being paid as less than that paid to other primary care providers, we have worked hard to ensure that the service has been commissioned this year.

This year all those eligible for an NHS vaccination can be vaccinated in the pharmacy, provided they are aged 18 or over. This is because children aged 17 years and under should be referred to their GP for the nasal vaccination which has been introduced this year. We are hopeful that pharmacy will be commissioned to administer the nasal vaccination next year and this is being trialed in Cumbria this year.

Claims for the service will be made via PharmOutcomes.

As soon as we have the NHS service specification, contract and PGD, we will notify you and make them available on the Northern Pharmacy website: www.northernpharmacy.net

Private service

If you accessed the LPC commissioned Novartis training, you will find copies of the support documentation on the Northern Pharmacy website soon. If you trained with any other provider, please ensure you follow the details of the PGD provided to you by your trainer. 

All private vaccinations need to be recorded on PharmOutcomes.

Vaccine stock

As the NHS PGD will be generic, you may use any vaccine.

If you are using the Novartis PGD for your private service you will be required to use Novartis vaccines. However, we have been advised that stock will not  be available for the start of the service on 1st October. As Novartis do not want to delay pharmacies from beginning their service provision, they will be issuing a generic PGD to allow you to use any vaccine. Once their stock is available to order, this PGD will be withdrawn and you will need to revert to the Novartis vaccine specific PGD.

Novartis will be providing us with PIP codes for their ring fenced pharmacy stock and we will forward these as soon as they are available. In the interim, we advise pharmacists to order whatever vaccine stock is available to them to commence service on 1st October, through their normal supply chains.

PharmOutcomes

As previously  indicated, all vaccinations need to be recorded on PharmOutcomes. This will generate an invoice for payment to NHS England for the NHS vaccinations you provide and will generate data about the service for all vaccinations, NHS and private, to theLPC.www.pharmoutcomes.org

***** What you need to do now ******

1. Ensure you have your PharmOutcomes log-in details and know how to access the system.
2. Log-in and go to the ‘Admin’ tab and ensure all your details are fully completed and correct, for example, email address and telephone number.
3. Within the next seven days, you will need to log-in and check the service section. You will find a new service ‘Seasonal Influenza pharmacist accreditation details’. You must complete the details required for each trained pharmacist, in order for the vaccination service templates to be activated for you. The training details will be validated prior to activation.
4. Once the vaccination service templates are activated, you will see three additional services when you log-in, NHS service, private service and patient evaluation. 

Patient evaluation

After every vaccination (private or NHS) ask your patient to complete an evaluation form. This will also keep them in the pharmacy, so you can be assured that they are not going to develop anaphylaxis after they leave the pharmacy. These evaluation details are then transferred to the PharmOutcomes service template. This is essential to provide robust data to the LPCs and NHS England regarding patient choice of service provider and quality of service experience.

Resources

As soon as we receive the NHS supporting documentation, this will be made available on a resource page on the Northern Pharmacy website. Supporting documents, such as the consultation form/GP notification form, evaluation form, etc. will also be available on this page.  This page, as previously stated, will also contain Novartis documentation.

Marketing materials

Those who have completed the Novartis training will receive marketing materials with their support pack. These are being sent out in batches and we understand that delivery has now started.

As we do not yet have any NHS marketing material, we have updated that which has been used in previous years and this is available on the marketing page of the Northern Pharmacy website. Please start using this material as you see fit to advertise your service to patients.  A direct link to the marketing page is  www.northernpharmacy.net/marketing-material.html

As we more information, we will keep you updated so make sure you are on our mailing list or following us on Facebook ortwitter. 

North of Tyne LPC,  Gateshead & South Tyneside LPC  and  Sunderland LPC have jointly  organised training for contractors and their pharmacists in the North and South of Tyne area.  
The training will ensure you have the relevant competencies required to provide the NHS Seasonal Flu Vaccination Service.  To find out more click here to acces their training page and booking forms.

Cumbria LPC has now finalised its training plans for pharmacists in their area.  Full details including booking formas can be found on their 

Flu services are now being commisoned by the area teams of NHS England.  There are 2 area teams covering our region.  One Team covers  Cumbria, Northumberland  North of Tyne, Gateshead & South Tyneside and Sunderland  and the second team covers Durham, Darlington and Tees.

As each LPC has traditonally negotiated FLu services seperatly with their own  PCT's we thought it would make sense for us to form one regional group to negotiate reagionally for the service.   This is ongoing as week speak.  It is looking very likely that both areas will commsion flu services through pharmacy and as details become available we will update this site.

We will also post on this site any training requirements, booking forms, and resoruces here for you to access.

Although the flu commissioning will happen centrally each LPC are at different stages with regards to their training requirements so when it comes to training please make sure you follow links / buttons to your own LPC area.   

We will add more buttons and links to this page as things get arranged.