Starting in September, all two- to three-year-olds should be vaccinated against influenza the government has announced.
This will be the first stage of the government’s plans to have all children vaccinated against influenza by 2015, NHS Employers have said.
Earlier this year the Department of Health (DH) said practices should start offering the new intranasal influenza vaccine to all two-year-olds, but this has been extended to three-year old children.
The children will need to be vaccinated during the seven-month period form 1 September 2013 to 31 March 2014, on either a proactive call basis or a proactive call and recall basis.
A pilot vaccination scheme of all primary and preschool children will be rolled out in a small number of areas, with a view to reaching all children in the age group by 2014.
Pilots for secondary school children will be run in 2014 with the aim of being ready by 2015.
An NHS Employers spokesperson told Pulse: “It is expected that GP practices will be able to record all administered doses through a GPES extraction.
“Further details will be available once agreement has been reached between NHS England and the Health and Social Care Information Centre on how best to utilise this service.”
According to NHS Employers, all practices will receive £7.64 for every registered two or three year old that is vaccinated on their list.
