Flu – Vaccination Programme – Ethnic Category information for secondary uses

The purpose of the dissemination is to support the NHS England national call/recall for flu vaccination programme. The dissemination will provide Ethic category data to link to their existing systems.

Ethnic category is required for:

• Risk stratification of COVID patients to identify those at high risk of complications

• Management reporting for flu/COVID vaccinations to address health inequalities

• The management of the flu vaccinations is vital to ensure that the COVID vaccination programme can proceed efficiently and the two are linked by the time period required inbetween an individual taking the flu vaccination and the first COVID vaccination. The two processes are intrinsically linked and the provision of ethnic category data is vital to both.

Ethnic category is required for the flu vaccination element to ensure that there is optimal coverage of uptake of the vaccine across the population. Reporting on uptake by ethic category will allow the system to manage the vaccine programme.

Optimal management of the flu vaccine programme is important to help manage the national covid pandemic to try and prevent a double peak for both flu and Covid. The management of the flu vaccine has implications on the management of any Covid vaccine in that anyone who has had a flu vaccine may not then receive a COVID-19 vaccine within a certain time period and so the management of the two together is essential.

Certain ethnic groups have been connected with increased morbidity and mortality in cases of CV19 and optimal uptake in these populations would be desirable if and when a CV vaccine is available.

It is essential that the two programmes are coordinated to accommodate the developing characteristics of the pandemic, and any interfaces between the vaccines, and their delivery processes as they are established.

Data disseminated under this agreement will not be used for performance management purposes.

NHS Digital will send NHS Number and ethic category data to System C, and Graphnet. Version 1.2 or the agreement has added Palantir as an additional data processor along side System C and Graphnet to support NHS England as a processor for vaccination reporting.

The data is then linked to the following feeds that System C and Graphnet already receive from NHS Digital;

o Demographics

o Vaccine activity data

o At risk cohorts

The data is then used for reporting vaccine uptake rates by Central South West CSU in aggregate form. Aggregated data will also be shared with ImmForm for PHE reporting. ImmForm is the system used by the Department of Health, the National Health Service and Public Health England to:

• record data in relation to uptake against immunisation programmes and incidence of flu-like illness

• provide vaccine ordering facilities for the NHS

Graphnet Health Ltd and System C Healthcare Ktd are acting as data processors in this agreement.

The National Imunisation Management service uses two integrated standard off the shelf software systems: the System C “CarePlus” immunisation system, and the Graphnet “CareCentric” shared record system, (System C and Graphnet are part of a Care Alliance).

CarePlus currently manages immunisations for around half of children in England and combined with CareCentric it delivers the children’s immunisation programme for all of Greater London. CareCentric holds and provides access to very detailed clinical records including primary care records for over 12m English citizens. Together they will work to utilise NIMS in the best possible platform.

NHS Digital will check the GDPPR and HES data will be checked fortnightly for any new information and if found that data will be released to NHS England so that they have the most current data to work from.

The system provides a Business Intelligence (BI) solution using Microsoft Power-BI which allows comprehensive dashboarding and analysis of the vaccination programme in real time.

This service is an integral part of the call/recall process and drives initiatives to increase uptake. Dashboards will be provided at national, regional, STP, local authority, ICS/P or GP practice level and in each case will only cover statistics for the citizens covered at that area.

The data supplied through this agreement will help NHS England to support the management of the flu vaccine programme with the aim of reducing pressure on the NHS throughout the winter period. In turn this will relieve pressure within the NHS assist them in the management of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic response.

The implementation of this service will deliver a centralised service for the management of seasonal flu immunisation and is an essential component of NHS England’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Benefits anticipated are;

1. help to ensure that any second “spike” in coronavirus infections in England separated in time as far as possible from the annual flu epidemic – so minimising pressures on NHS resources

2. provide a protype for the delivery of a subsequent national COVID-19 immunisation programme by establishing a dynamic infrastructure capable of responding rapidly to target appropriate cohorts across the whole population of England.

Not stated in the register.