Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to require GP surgeries in England to put in place a call and recall procedure to require them to follow up patients in the shingles vaccination cohort who have not yet availed themselves of the vaccine.

As outlined in both the NHS Long Term Plan and Investment and Evolution: a five-year framework for GP contract reform to implement The NHS Long Term Plan, NHS England and NHS Improvement are currently undertaking a review of vaccinations and immunisations. The Department would not wish to pre-empt the outcome of this review. Investment and Evolution states that the purpose of the review as being to:

- Ensure the system incentivises achievement of appropriate uptake rates for immunisations in line with national public health uptake rates;

- Reduce the administrative burden on general practices by simplifying the system if possible;

- Clarify what is expected on call/recall for immunisations delivered through the GP contract;

- Address anomalies in the system that directly incentivise some vaccines but not others;

- Look at how we deal with outbreaks and catch-up programmes; and

- Consider whether we extend the list of chargeable travel vaccines.

A copy of Investment and Evolution: a five-year framework for GP contract reform to implement The NHS Long Term Plan is attached.