Health and Social Care Information Centre

Government Agency (Health and Adult Social Care)

No

DARS-NIC-402116-G1T7V-v1.2

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.

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.

06/10/2021

De-Personalised

CV19: Regulation 3 (4) of the Health Service (Control of Patient Information) Regulations 2002

Statutory exemption to flow confidential data without consent

Recurring

TRE