GP practices have been asked to review and correct 57,000 patient records containing vaccination coding errors caused by an IT issue.
last week, NHS England has said that GP practices using the Accurx Batch Messaging system, which allows practices to send the same message to a group of patients via email, SMS or the NHS App, have been affected by an IT issue causing errors in the coding of vaccinations.
In some cases, the code for a completed RSV vaccination was selected on the system after an invitation had been sent rather than the code for an invitation.
This did not affect patients being invited to receive a vaccination, but their record on the GP practice system was updated to say incorrectly that they had received a vaccination, and they may not have received a follow-up reminder to book a vaccine.
It means that patients who have an administration code recorded without receiving vaccination will remain unprotected against disease and may not be sent future invites.
It affected around 57,000 records across 337 GP practices, and the vast majority relate to the RSV vaccination.
GP practices have been asked to review records to correct them and ensure anyone still needing a vaccination is sent a follow-up reminder.
All practices were also asked to record any instances of patient harm – for example, where a patient may have contracted RSV and required hospital care – resulting from missed vaccinations.
NHS England added that the coding system has now been ‘simplified’ to prevent this happening again.
In a parliamentary statement, health secretary Wes Streeting said: ‘GP practices affected will review patient records, to make sure anyone due a vaccination that hasn’t received one is offered one as soon as possible and that records are accurate and up to date.
‘On average, an affected GP practice will have to review less than 200 cases and NHS England and Integrated Care Boards will support them in this process. A detailed root cause analysis will be carried out to ensure we learn from this and avoid similar issues in the future.’
An NHS England spokesperson said: ‘We have identified an IT issue which led to some people’s GP records incorrectly showing them as having received vaccines, mainly affecting RSV vaccinations.
‘All patients due a vaccination will have received their invitation as normal, and GP practices are now reviewing and correcting records – and will send reminders to anyone who did not take up their vaccine offer.’
CEO and co-founder of Accurx Jacob Haddad: ‘At Accurx, we’re committed to supporting primary care as teams continue to work under immense pressure.
‘We’ve worked closely with NHS England to respond to an issue where some vaccination codes were incorrectly selected during patient invitations.
‘Whilst this wasn’t a technical fault, we have restricted which codes can be selected to prevent this from happening in the future.’
A version of this article was first published by our sister title Pulse
