Managing vaccination services in community pharmacies from April 2025
Managing vaccination services in community pharmacies from April 2025
In line with NHS England’s recent announcement, pharmacies must select a technology partner to support the NHS Point of Care vaccination services (COVID-19 and Flu) commencing in April 2025.
In the future, Pertussis, MMR, HPV and RSV services will also be included as services that can be offered via pharmacies. We will let our users know when new services become available.
Outcomes4Health has been assured as our NHS Point of Care vaccination system for COVID-19.
The cost of IT support for vaccinations services will be covered by NHSE under current arrangements moving forward.
Please see below the action you need to take to choose Outcomes4Health as your technology partner:
I already use PharmOutcomes or Outcomes4Health for vaccinations:
You can continue to record vaccinations through Outcomes4Health with no changes to contracts, no installation requirements, and no downtime, your pharmacy can continue without disruption.
All you need to do is login to the Outcomes4Health website and complete the following steps to ensure your organisation details are correct:
· On the left-hand side of the homepage within Outcomes4Health, click on “update my organisation details”
· Under the orange “Vital information” section, please check that the following information is correct:
o Organisation name
o Organisation address
o NHS ODS code (your pharmacy F code)
o Management email address
If your details are incorrect, please raise a request to have these amended via Optum Help Centre (formerly EMIS Now) as soon as possible.
I already use PharmOutcomes, but not for delivering vaccinations:
You will need to be onboarded as a vaccination supplier. You can do this by completing the onboarding form on Optum Help Centre (formerly EMIS Now), which will provide us with all the information we need to onboard you. If you are unable to access Optum Help Centre (formerly EMIS Now), for any reason, please contact us via Live Chat.
I am an individual pharmacy (not part of any multiple), I don’t currently use PharmOutcomes or Outcomes4Health:
If you are an independent community pharmacy and you wish to use Outcomes4Health to record your vaccination services, please visit Optum Help Centre (formerly EMIS Now) and contact us via Live Chat. We will then be able to assist you with the onboarding process.
I am a Pharmacy multiple or Pharmacy group:
If your pharmacies already use Outcomes4Health to record COVID –19 vaccinations, you do not need to take any action as your sites will automatically be migrated seamlessly on to the new service.
For any sites included as part of your pharmacy chain that do not currently use Outcomes4Health to record COVID-19 vaccinations, you can sign them up to do so collectively by completing this form and returning it to iow.pinnaclehealth@nhs.net.
Please only add sites that do not currently use Outcomes4Health for COVID-19 vaccinations and return the form to us as soon as possible to ensure they are set-up in time for the vaccination season.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. I already record COVID-19 vaccinations on Outcomes4Health, what action do I need to take?
A. As detailed above, you don’t need to do anything, you can continue to record vaccinations through Outcomes4Health with no changes to contracts, no installation requirements, and no downtime, your pharmacy can continue without disruption.
We recommend you login to the Outcomes4Health website and complete the following steps to ensure your organisation details are correct:
· On the left-hand side of the homepage within Outcomes4Health, click on “update my organisation details”
· Under “vital details”, please check that the following information is correct:
o Organisation name
o Organisation address
o NHS ODS code (your pharmacy F code)
o Management email address
If your details are incorrect, please raise a request to have these amended via Optum Help Centre (formerly EMIS Now) as soon as possible.
Q. I have a group of pharmacies, some currently use other systems to record COVID -19 vaccinations, but I would like them to use Outcomes4Health, can I now move these pharmacies so that all my group uses one solution to record vaccinations?
A. Yes, you can. Historically pharmacies had to use the IT solution set by NHSE but the changes that come into force from 1 April 2025 mean pharmacy organisations can choose which IT solution they wish to use to record COVID-19 vaccinations.
This also applies to seasonal influenza vaccinations for the coming autumn winter campaign starting in 2025. If you would like to use Outcomes4Health across all branches in your group, please let us know by following the process outlined above and we will migrate all branches for you.
Q. The recent changes mention new vaccination services that are planned for pharmacy, will I be able to record these on Outcomes4Health?
A. Yes, as new services are released, we will be developing service templates to support these that meet the requirements for community pharmacy. We will keep users informed of any new services introduced.
Q. Do I record Seasonal Influenza Vaccination service provisions on the same system?
A. Yes, all seasonal influenza vaccinations must also be recorded on the system you choose to use at your pharmacy. This includes seasonal influenza vaccinations for the 2025/26 Autumn Winter programme and any new vaccination services introduced by NHSE.
Q. I currently record my COVID-19 vaccinations and Seasonal Influenza vaccinations on PharmOutcomes, will I be able to continue to do this?
A. For community pharmacies that have been recording vaccinations on our primary region, you will still see access links for the vaccination services in your PharmOutcomes services page.
As Outcomes4Health is now our assured solution, users will notice that they will be redirected to Outcomes4Health from 1 April. You do not need to login again and the move is seamless for the user. All activity reports can be accessed as before.
Q. Will Outcomes4Health manage all service claims for my pharmacy as before?
A. Yes, the new COVID-19 vaccination template for community pharmacy will support all existing functionality including, vaccine batch management, care home prefills, links with the immunisation history feature, PDS patient validation and claim management.
Q. Is there a charge to my pharmacy to use Outcomes4Health to record vaccination services
A. No there is not. Although the new commissioning model requires pharmacies to choose a preferred IT system the cost of the support is currently met by NHSE.