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Community pharmacies in England are preparing for the launch of the national Flu Vaccination Service 2016/17 on 1 September. This will be very similar to the service available last year, with a few key changes.

While NHS England has yet to publish the service specification and Patient Group Direction (PGD) for the service, PSNC has alerted community pharmacy contractors to some important differences from last year's offering:

• The service is commissioned to run until 31 March 2017, a month longer than last year
• Contractors who wish to provide the flu vaccination service must inform NHS England of their intention to do so via the NHS BSA website. This must be done annually
• A separate patient group direction (PGD) will be available for the community pharmacy flu vaccination service this year
• The new service requires contractors to specify on the GP notification form the reason that a patient is eligible
• A new NHS England website will be available to support collation and submission of patient surveys
• Payment claims for vaccinations administered during March 2017 must be submitted to the NHS BSA by the 5 April. Late claims will not be processed this year
• NHS England has advised that consent forms should be retained for what the pharmacy contractor deems an appropriate period of time.

The Department of Health has also published its flu guidance for 2016/17. This outlines what groups of people the vaccination is recommended for.