Decision details

Committee to receive an update report from NHS England on the work of the Task and Finish Group undertaken in relation to immunisations. 

The Chairman invited Joanne Murfitt, the Director of Public Health Commissioning, Health in the Justice System and Military Health, NHS England (London Region) to the table.

The Committee considered the report which provided an update on the work of a Task and Finish Group which was established by NHS England to consider the implementation of an IT system, namely “System One”.

Ms. Murfitt provided the Committee with the following update in relation to the matter:

·           All practices within Barnet are now signed up to “Quality Medical Solutions”, a service which supports commissioners by quickly providing information on primary care performance.

·           That Quarter 3 data was showing an improvement across all key groups, but that performance was still the lowest in North Central London. 

·           That NHS England were taking a proactive approach with the Child Health Information Service provider and a full review had been undertaken in December 2014. The completed action plan will be used as assurance for NHS England to enable all children’s records to be quality assured.

Responding to a question from a Member about whether the fact that GP Practices continue to perform poorly will be made public, Ms. Murfitt advised that the intention would be to work with any such practices to make improvements. 

A Member questioned if there was any work being undertaken in order to ensure that people get the necessary immunisations at the correct time.  Ms. Murfitt advised the Committee that this was an important point and that NHS England would be keen to work with the Local Authority on this matter to consider solutions to the problem such as the use of health visitors. 

Responding to a question from a Member Ms. Murfitt advised the Committee that there had been an increase in the birth rate within the Borough and that people had become complacent about immunisation against infectious diseases. 

Ms. Murfitt advised the Committee that the recent data on immunisations was more positive, but there was more work to be done around immunisation in five year olds for MMR.  The Committee noted that high mobility rates in London tended to affect the uptake rate of immunisation. 

The Committee noted that a number of organisations could potentially assist in getting people registered for immunisations, such as Children’s Centres and Health Visitors. 

A Member commented that pharmacies had been used to promote the Flu vaccine and questioned if the same approach could be used with other immunisations.  Ms. Murfitt advised the Committee that pharmacies in London had been invited to advertise the Flu vaccine and, whilst the uptake had been good, not as many people have received the vaccine as had been hoped for.

RESOLVED that the Committee note the report.