Groups of practices will have to administer the Covid vaccine to care home residents and staff, as well as to housebound patients through home visits, the new DES reveals.
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The directed enhanced service (DES) – which is an opt-in, nationally negotiated service over and above those provided under usual contracts – was revealed yesterday evening.
The DES also makes clear that patients will need to be kept under clinical supervision for 15 minutes after receiving the Covid vaccination.
There will need to be a 21-28 day gap between the two doses that need to be administered for the vaccines that are currently close to being approved.
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It also reveals that practices will be paid for vaccinating their own stuff.
It confirms the details revealed by Nursing in Practice‘s sister publication Pulse on Friday, including:
- A fee of £12.58 per dose administered, with the full £25.16 being paid after the second dose has been given;
- The groups of practices – likely conforming to the PCN groupings – will have to administer the vaccines across seven days, due to the short shelf lives of the vaccine, specifically the Pfizer one announced today;
- A registered healthcare professional will need to carry out the clinical assessment and consent. A suitably trained non-registered member of staff will be able to administer the vaccine itself under clinical supervision
Other details that were not revealed last week include:
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- Alongside the general practice-led service, other providers (likely to be NHS trusts) will be commissioned to provide the programme through other means, probably via regional vaccination centres in a similar way to the testing centres.
- Practices will be provided with the vaccines, needles, syringes, diluents and PPE.
- Should it not be possible to administer the second dose, one IOS can be claimed.
