Maximising income from the Meningitis vaccination catch-up programme

UPDATED 24 MAY 2022

Meningitis vaccinations to teenagers and young adults, namely the Men ACWY are now part of core services.

Potential income will depend on local school meningitis vaccination uptake and demographics but a typical practice might expect to earn £100 per annum.

The biggest potential will be for practices with larger numbers of teenagers and young adults; these practices may not have many other opportunities to increase income.

Key points

• Young people between 14 and 24 years old are eligible for the vaccination, worth £10.06 to practices.
• Patients over 22 years old are unlikely to have had the vaccination at school.
• The practice must sign up to participate on CQRS at the start of the year. Data extraction is then automatic.
• These can be a difficult group to contact. Opportunistic vaccination and word of mouth could be vital.

Service background

There have been programmes for immunisation against meningitis in teenagers for a number of years although the details of the eligible group and the protection it offers have changed frequently.

The current vaccine is active against four strains of the meningococcal bacteria: A, C, W and Y. As this predominantly affects young people, vaccination is offered to everyone between the ages of 14 and 24.

At the younger end of this age group most children receive the vaccination as part of the school immunisation programme, at age 14 (Year 9). However, as this has only been offered for a few years, patients in their early 20s may not have been immunised. This is a particular risk where patients are going to university or similar environment for the first time, as infection can spread rapidly in these groups.

Patients remain eligible until their 25th birthday if they have missed the vaccination at school for any reason, although the most important groups are those up to 18 years old or are going to attend university for the first time.

Where patients have not already been immunised at school, practices will receive £10.06 for administering the vaccine.

Service specifications

Details of the completing dose service are outlined in the amended GMS Statement of Financial Entitlements Directions for 2021/22 (see Section I.8).

There is no requirement for practices to have a recall system in place, although it would clearly help to increase the number of patients protected and income to the practice to have some sort of system.

Ensuring payment

It is important to be sure that the practice has signed up to this service through CQRS at the start of each year. The administration of the vaccine can be coded or a prescription issued.

Either will be picked up automatically by CQRS via the General Practice Extraction Service (GPES) and payment should be made monthly.

The MenACWY completing dose and freshers vaccination programmes are now one combined service.

As this is attracts only an item of service payment, exception codes don’t make any difference, although they can be useful if you choose to send out reminders.

Data will also be collected through ImmForm, and this is also the route to obtaining supplies of the vaccine. There are commonly limits on how many vaccines can be ordered at a time.

To record the vaccination, a prescription can be issued on the practice computer system, although this does not need to be printed or sent to a pharmacy – the vaccines are centrally supplied.

The administration of the injection itself can be recorded as an alternative, using the codes below. The extraction rules are fairly broad and do include any dose of the vaccine but clinically this should be the patient’s first does of the ACWY vaccination.

Snomed CT: 390892002 or its descendents

How to maximise uptake

• Success when inviting patients will depend on the accuracy of information about school vaccinations as well as the availability of the vaccine. It will only cause frustration to patients if a vaccination is suggested but none is available.
• This can be a difficult group to reach, especially as many will not update their contact details on turning 18 years old. The payment may not cover a postal campaign, especially if many patients have already received the vaccination without this information appearing in practice records. Mobile phone numbers may change frequently among younger people.
• Word of mouth is an effective tactic alongside opportunistic vaccination. Young people attending the surgery for medication reviews or contraception can be invited in person and encouraged to tell their friends.
• Posters in waiting rooms can encourage patients who are attending for other reasons, as can messages on prescriptions. Social media may help – but be mindful that young people do not necessarily use the same platforms as surgeries.