GP practices across several areas of England have been advised to check they are recording measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (MMRV) vaccinations correctly.
The Child Health Information System (CHIS) told LMCs that it is aware that some practices are using templates for recording immunisations that do not record MMRV.
It said that the issue appears to be affecting practices using ‘out of date locally configured templates’, and urged any practices not using a third-party tool to update the templates.
Practices started offering a combined vaccine for MMRV at the beginning of last month, following research showing the significant impact of severe cases of chickenpox on children’s health, hospital admissions and associated costs.
In a message seen by our sister title Pulse, Kent ICB warned practices in its area that where incorrect coding occurs within GP systems, this leads to ‘inaccurate’ immunisation records and discrepancies between GP records and CHIS, with ‘implications for patient recall and surveillance’.
It added: ‘There is a statutory obligation for GP practices to maintain accurate and up to date patient records. Promptly updating templates will help prevent further miscoding and reduce the need for retrospective data correction.
‘If MMRV has been incorrectly coded as MMR, GP practices will need to correct individual patient records.’
Avon LMC and Wessex LMC also urged practices in their area to ensure accurate coding.
The CHIS will query any vaccines entered as MMR to clarify if they have actually given MMRV if age or dose is appropriate, it added.
Ardens confirmed that its centrally updated template replaces previous versions, so practices using Ardens do not have to update the template themselves.
TPP said it has updated the SystmOne childhood vaccination grid to support the new MMRV immunisation schedule and that this change has been in place since the start of the new schedule last month.
A spokesperson added: ‘Any organisation using locally-configured templates should ensure these have also been updated to support the new schedule.’
NHS England said it was not aware of a widespread issue around the recording of MMRV but stressed that it is the practices’ responsibility to keep the records up to date.
The change to the routine childhood schedule, including the introduction of the varicella vaccine, was announced as part of the 2025/26 GP contract, when NHS England said it would remove 32 QOF indicators and invest their funding into global sum, childhood vaccinations and cardiovascular prevention.
In November 2023, the JCVI recommended that a universal chickenpox vaccination programme be included in the routine childhood immunisation schedule.
A version of this story first appeared on our sister title Pulse.
