Microtest supports swine flu vaccination

GP system supplier Microtest has launched a swine flu reporting service to help GP practices deliver the swine flu vaccination programme.

The system supplier said users of Microtest Evolution and Practice Manager 2 were being saved the task of identifying at risk patients on their clinical systems.

The company said its new service automatically checks patient lists for the 700 indicators that identify patients indicated for the swine flu vaccination.

Chris Netherton, managing director of Microtest, said patient lists and mail-merge files were already in place at every Microtest practice to ensure staff have the necessary data at the start of each day.

He added: “It is then a simple case of merging the target files to produce the necessary patient letters, ensuring that patients are ready to be immunised as soon as there is a free appointment.”

Microtest said the service also creates lists of immunised patients to help practices meet swine flu immunisation targets and produces the weekly and monthly anonymised progress reports that practices are required to send to their primary care trusts and the Department of Health.

Simon Colbeck, practice manager at Cheltenham Road Surgery in Gloucester, said: “This is a really great service. It means I don’t have to spend hours running searches and compiling reports for the Immform Website, both for seasonal flu and swine flu.”

Sarah Thompson, primary care development manager at NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, said the system saved time for practices and helped the PCT with data collection.

She added: “Practices who have a different system supplier are finding this process not as straightforward. It would make the retrieval of information less stressful for the practice if all system suppliers could offer this service.”