Dr Katie Newby¹, Joanne Parsons¹ and Rachael Leslie²

In spring 2014, Coventry University undertook a piece of work for Warwickshire County Council and Coventry City Council aiming to identify differences between two groups of GP practices: those with ‘high’ or ‘lower’ flu vaccination uptake rates. Interviews with 18 practice managers and two GPs from 20 practices (10 high and 10 lower) were conducted.

Whilst good practice and a desire to improve uptake was evident across the two groups of practices, there were some key differences. High performing practices were more likely to:

· have a highly driven/motivated lead

· have aspirational uptake targets (beyond QoF)

· to make greater and better use of computer prompts

· to have GPs opportunistically vaccinating (rather than referring to practice nurse) and

· to contact patients by telephone (as opposed to letter or other method) as a first line strategy.

The authors have produced a report for GP practices providing more detail on the study and its findings, including examples of best practice. This will be sent to all GP practices across the two counties. It is hoped that this will be of use in planning their 2014-15 flu vaccination strategy.

For a copy of the report please contact Katie Newby (k.newby@coventry.ac.uk).

¹Applied Research Centre in Health and Lifestyle Interventions, Coventry University

²Warwickshire County Council