EXCLUSIVE

The British Medical Association (BMA)’s most senior GP has called for a shared IT system for GPs and pharmacists to use for the next flu service.

Having different IT systems for each profession meant the 2015-16 flu service was "haphazard", the chair of the BMA’s GP committee, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, said. 

"[Because] the systems are not talking to each other, it has created inherent difficulties in providing a targeted population-based approach," he told C+D last week (March 3).

A shared database that allows pharmacists to inform GPs instantly when a patient is vaccinated would reduce bureaucracy and workload for practices, he said.

It would also allow more accurate information to be kept about who has been vaccinated, he said.

“If we have been able to organise the electronic prescription system (EPS), we also need the reality of information on pharmacist vaccinations being automatically inputted on the GP clinical system,” he said.

Readers agree

C+D readers agreed with Dr Nagpaul. In a poll this week, more than half (54%) named a national IT system to notify GPs about vaccinated patients as the one thing that would most improve a pharmacy flu service.

Sixteen percent of 134 respondents said better relationships with GPs would be the most important improvement for the service, while 13% wanted more notification that the service is going ahead.

Less than 10% backed either access to the summary care record, or less red tape around flu training as the most important factors.

How would you improve the national flu service?

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