August 2025 – EMIS Newsletter
Topics
A message from our founder
Hello!
It has been another busy month for us at Primary Care IT, working hard to bring you some exciting updates!
We are pleased to announce that our Seasonal Influenza 2025/26 searches are in your EMIS systems. As well as this, we are also deploying our COVID searches. Please read more about this year’s searches below.
Thank you, as always, for your continued support.
Best wishes
Dustyn (Founder)
It has been another busy month for us at Primary Care IT, working hard to bring you some exciting updates!
We are pleased to announce that our Seasonal Influenza 2025/26 searches are in your EMIS systems. As well as this, we are also deploying our COVID searches. Please read more about this year’s searches below.
Thank you, as always, for your continued support.
Best wishes
Dustyn (Founder)
PCIT Updates
👩🏻💻 Smarter diary management is here – Join our webinar!
Overdue diary entries are more than just clutter, they’re a clinical risk. Our brand-new Diary Recall System transforms how you manage follow-ups in EMIS with:
🔵 Searches to identify overdue diary items
🔵 Alerts that flag when action is due
🔵 A new template to support future planning
🔵 An intelligent protocol that auto-closes resolved diary entries
Join us to see how it works, why it matters, and how your team can start benefiting straight away.
🗓️ Thursday 11th September
⏰ 13:00
🤔 Live demo + Q&A included
🔵 Searches to identify overdue diary items
🔵 Alerts that flag when action is due
🔵 A new template to support future planning
🔵 An intelligent protocol that auto-closes resolved diary entries
Join us to see how it works, why it matters, and how your team can start benefiting straight away.
🗓️ Thursday 11th September
⏰ 13:00
🤔 Live demo + Q&A included
💉 RSV Vaccination Programme – final call for catch up cohort
As the RSV vaccination programme approaches its first anniversary, the eligibility criteria is about to have a minor change. Patients who were aged 79 on 1st September 2024 have been eligible to receive the RSV vaccine, even after turning 80, for the first year. From 1st September 2025, these patients will no longer qualify for vaccination. If your practice has not yet followed up with this cohort, you still have a month to offer vaccination. Search folder 034D Eligible for RSV vaccination contains a targeted recall search (PA-357) to help identify remaining eligible patients.
Remember to ensure payment via the CQRS submission, all vaccinations must be administered by 31st August 2025.
Remember to ensure payment via the CQRS submission, all vaccinations must be administered by 31st August 2025.
❌ Removal of some vaccination codes
A recent change to SNOMED is the removal of vaccinations ‘given by other healthcare provider’. The expectation is that the code used for administration in Practice should also be used to record vaccinations given elsewhere. Some Practices have reported spikes in their CQRS returns where teenage boosters done at school have been picked up.
Last month Optum published an article on the Support Centre (KB5004523) explaining the impact of the codes being removed, and how to record vaccinations done elsewhere. All staff involved in coding vaccinations should be aware of the importance of using the GMS qualifier. When given in Practice, always select ‘GMS’, while any vaccinations given elsewhere (or private vaccinations at the surgery) must select ‘Not GMS’. Typing the administering provider in text next to the code is not sufficient and the vaccination may be incorrectly counted in your monthly CQRS return.
Last month Optum published an article on the Support Centre (KB5004523) explaining the impact of the codes being removed, and how to record vaccinations done elsewhere. All staff involved in coding vaccinations should be aware of the importance of using the GMS qualifier. When given in Practice, always select ‘GMS’, while any vaccinations given elsewhere (or private vaccinations at the surgery) must select ‘Not GMS’. Typing the administering provider in text next to the code is not sufficient and the vaccination may be incorrectly counted in your monthly CQRS return.
Resource Releases & Updates
🔍 016 Seasonal Influenza Searches
Primary Care IT has released its search folder 016 Seasonal Influenza 2025/26 season. Customers will find it in their Primary Care IT folder in Population Reporting.
To prepare for the call/recall programme, the RECALL folder provides lists to invite priority groups. Once the vaccination programme is running, the ACTIVITY and UPTAKE reporting folders help to monitor vaccination numbers. Meanwhile, the RECALL folder will update as vaccinations are given and declines collected so additional invitations can be issued.
HP247 Eligible for flu vaccination can be added to team member’s own F12 pick lists which will help to confirm eligibility if a patient contacts the surgery to arrange a flu vaccination.
Primary Care IT will update protocols and templates for administering flu vaccinations prior to the official start of the campaign in September.
📚 For further details, please see our support guide below.
Primary Care IT will update protocols and templates for administering flu vaccinations prior to the official start of the campaign in September.
To prepare for the call/recall programme, the RECALL folder provides lists to invite priority groups. Once the vaccination programme is running, the ACTIVITY and UPTAKE reporting folders help to monitor vaccination numbers. Meanwhile, the RECALL folder will update as vaccinations are given and declines collected so additional invitations can be issued.
HP247 Eligible for flu vaccination can be added to team member’s own F12 pick lists which will help to confirm eligibility if a patient contacts the surgery to arrange a flu vaccination.
Primary Care IT will update protocols and templates for administering flu vaccinations prior to the official start of the campaign in September.
📚 For further details, please see our support guide below.
Primary Care IT will update protocols and templates for administering flu vaccinations prior to the official start of the campaign in September.
🧪 005 Covid Vaccination Programme
Primary Care IT is deploying the 005B COVID Autumn Booster search folder to support the 2025 vaccination campaign. This will be available in the Primary Care IT folder in Population Reporting. If you have not yet had 005B COVID booster recall (v3.0), a copy is available on your local Enterprise area, or submit a ticket to our support team.
The eligibility criteria remain the same as those used in the Spring 2025 booster campaign, meaning a smaller cohort of immunosuppressed patients and those over the age of 75.
Use the Recall folder to identify and invite eligible patients, and issue follow up invitations when necessary.
New reports have been created to help Practices target patients who were vaccinated elsewhere in the previous campaign, which will help to generate additional activity for general practice led vaccination centres.
The red box alert HP211 has been updated to highlight eligible patients during the campaign who can be reminded about getting a vaccination.
📚 For further details, please see our support guide below.
The eligibility criteria remain the same as those used in the Spring 2025 booster campaign, meaning a smaller cohort of immunosuppressed patients and those over the age of 75.
Use the Recall folder to identify and invite eligible patients, and issue follow up invitations when necessary.
New reports have been created to help Practices target patients who were vaccinated elsewhere in the previous campaign, which will help to generate additional activity for general practice led vaccination centres.
The red box alert HP211 has been updated to highlight eligible patients during the campaign who can be reminded about getting a vaccination.
📚 For further details, please see our support guide below.
⚕️ OneLauncher Suspected Cancer
This new launcher brings together all clinical templates for suspected cancer into one place. These templates can easily be launched via the f12 protocol launcher or by using “Run Template”.
These cancer specific templates allow relevant history to be recorded, prompting users to consider differential causes depending on the suspected cancer type. For example, the 2WW Lower GI template prompts users to consider if the patient is 40 years+ with unintentional clinically significant weight loss and abdominal pain or 50 years+ with unexplained rectal bleeding, etc. Regardless of age the Lower GI template will always prompt the clinician to consider rectal or anal masses, ulceration, abdominal mass or positive FIT tests.
📚 For further details, please see our support guide below.
These cancer specific templates allow relevant history to be recorded, prompting users to consider differential causes depending on the suspected cancer type. For example, the 2WW Lower GI template prompts users to consider if the patient is 40 years+ with unintentional clinically significant weight loss and abdominal pain or 50 years+ with unexplained rectal bleeding, etc. Regardless of age the Lower GI template will always prompt the clinician to consider rectal or anal masses, ulceration, abdominal mass or positive FIT tests.
📚 For further details, please see our support guide below.
FAQ’s, Training & more
Wanting to use our searches?
We have a full suite of searches available for practice use. You can find your current searches readily installed in your system by going to Population Reporting & opening the “Primary Care IT” folder.
It’s important to note we go into practice systems and update these as frequently as possible. For further information on our searches, click here. See our guide to know the latest changes to our searches here.
Queries about CQC Navigator?
CQC inspection teams use a set of searches which have been designed to help them to understand how a Practice manages their patient population, and to identify clinical situations which should not be happening. To support with this,
Primary Care IT has adapted these searches to help practices understand what might need to be addressed before
a CQC inspector finds it.
We recommend checking our CQC Navigator FAQ guide here. If you have any questions after reading the article, please raise a ticket with us for support.
How do I raise a support ticket?
If you ever need to contact us for support, the best way to reach us is by creating a support ticket, you can do this here. These tickets are triaged internally and passed to the relevant member of our team to ensure your request or question is answered to the best of our ability. You can always chase the progress of your support tickets by calling our office (0333 344 3678) and providing your ticket reference number.
We have a full suite of searches available for practice use. You can find your current searches readily installed in your system by going to Population Reporting & opening the “Primary Care IT” folder.
It’s important to note we go into practice systems and update these as frequently as possible. For further information on our searches, click here. See our guide to know the latest changes to our searches here.
Queries about CQC Navigator?
CQC inspection teams use a set of searches which have been designed to help them to understand how a Practice manages their patient population, and to identify clinical situations which should not be happening. To support with this,
Primary Care IT has adapted these searches to help practices understand what might need to be addressed before
a CQC inspector finds it.
We recommend checking our CQC Navigator FAQ guide here. If you have any questions after reading the article, please raise a ticket with us for support.
How do I raise a support ticket?
If you ever need to contact us for support, the best way to reach us is by creating a support ticket, you can do this here. These tickets are triaged internally and passed to the relevant member of our team to ensure your request or question is answered to the best of our ability. You can always chase the progress of your support tickets by calling our office (0333 344 3678) and providing your ticket reference number.