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We’re currently transitioning Ardens Clinical support articles to this new Knowledge Base. Content will be added progressively, so you may find limited articles available at this stage.
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ℹ️ Introduction
This article explains how Ardens resources can support your practice in delivering the combined Seasonal Influenza and COVID-19 vaccination programmes. By the end of this article, you will understand how to use the available resources to identify eligible patients, manage invitations, organise visits, and monitor vaccination uptake.
Background
NHS England supports aligning seasonal influenza and COVID-19 schedules to enable co-administration where clinically appropriate. This NHS England Guidance provides further information on the seasonal influenza and COVID-19 vaccination programmes.
How Ardens Can Help
Ardens resources support practices throughout the vaccination programme by helping to:
Identify eligible patients
Organise invitations and follow-up activity
Manage care home and housebound visits
Record vaccination activity
Monitor uptake and invitation status
Dedicated resources are available for:
Seasonal Influenza
COVID-19
Combined Flu and COVID delivery
⚠️ Please note:
Ardens searches use SNOMED codes, while the Green Book uses clinical definitions
Not all eligibility criteria translate directly into coded data
Business rules for payment may differ from clinical eligibility
Clinical judgement should guide decisions in ambiguous cases
How to Access
↩️ Recall
These resources help GP practices efficiently manage the vaccination programmes by identifying eligible patients, organising invitations and follow-ups - including special arrangements for care home and housebound patients.
Invites
Invite reports are broken down into 1st invite, 2nd invite, and 3rd invites. They identify patients who are eligible for the flu and COVID-19 vaccines but have not yet been vaccinated.
⚠️Please note:
Patients will only appear in one invite list at a time (1st, 2nd, or 3rd), not across multiple lists
If a flu invite code is already on a patient’s record, they won’t appear in the 1st invite list. Once both flu and COVID 1st invite codes are added, they’ll move to the 2nd invite list. If flu invites have already been sent, start with the 1st invite list for COVID and then proceed with 2nd and 3rd invites as normal
Always add both the flu and COVID invite codes to ensure accurate data recording and reporting
You can export invite lists to CSV and send messages using Accurx, SystmOne Communication Annexe or another third-party platform. Please see EMIS Web and SystmOne support articles for further information on how to do this.
Visits
Separate visit reports are provided for housebound and care home residents so practices can use the list of patients to support the administration of the COVID vaccinations outside of the practice:
Care home residents (housebound / not housebound)
Housebound but not in a care home
These patients are excluded from all invitation reports, so use the Visits reports to plan and organise their vaccinations.
ℹ️ Remember to review relevant reports in folder '02. Review before' first to ensure the patient lists are accurate.
📈 Evaluate
These resources help practices manage and monitor the vaccination programmes by tracking uptake and providing dashboards to analyse and target patient groups more effectively.
Review After
To help ensure accurate payment and data integrity, a data quality report is available. The report captures patients who have not had the same number of COVID and Flu invites. This can then be used as a 'catch-all' search to make sure patients have been invited for both vaccinations
Insights
For Ardens Manager subscribers, the Vaccinations dashboard provides a clear visual overview of:
Eligible cohorts
Number of invitations sent
Vaccination uptake rates
You can also filter and analyse data by:
Clinical risk groups
Low uptake groups
This helps you prioritise and target specific patient populations more effectively
❓FAQs
Why are some patients not appearing in the 1st invite reports?
Patients with existing Flu invite codes may already have progressed through part of the invite workflow.
Why do patients only appear in one invite report at a time?
The invite workflow is designed to prevent duplicate communications and ensure patients move sequentially through 1st, 2nd, and 3rd invite stages.
Why are care home and housebound patients excluded from the invite reports?
These patients are managed separately through the Visits workflow to support outreach vaccination planning.
Can invite lists be exported for batch messaging?
Yes. Reports can be exported to CSV format for use with approved communication platforms.
🏫Additional Support
To further your understanding of the Ardens resources:
Book training for your GP Practice, PCN or ICB
Contact our Support Team for support in real time