034D Eligible for RSV vaccination searches
This folder sits within Primary care IT - Reporting Group within folder 034 Eligibility.
The new vaccination programme against Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) goes live in September 2024. In preparation for this new line of work, Primary Care IT has produced this folder of searches to support call and recall activities.
The majority of this work relates to older adults (over 75s) as this is the group that primary care is expected to manage. The other group of pregnant patients who are at least 28 weeks' gestation should be managed by midwifery services like the pertussis vaccination programme, although primary care is still expected to keep an eye on patients. See Pregnant patients cohort below for more information.
Primary Care IT strongly recommends that this article is understood before the searches are used in your Practice.
Primary Care IT successfully lobbied the SNOMED clinical terminology team in Summer 2024 for codes to be created as invitation codes are a fundamental component of an effective recall programme. These were released in late 2024.
Cohorts for RSV vaccination
There are 6 searches representing the cohorts who are eligible to receive an RSV vaccination according to the UKHSA guidance updated in February 2026. There are no exclusions in this folder for patients declining or vaccinations given, so they should not be used for call/recall purposes.
- Patient who turned 75 in the last 2 months - this cohort provides information on patients who have recently turned 75 (including those turned 75 within the last two months from the run date) , it can be run with a relative run date to look ahead and see patients who are due to turn 75 by a future date.
- Patient page 75 and over - these cohorts are divided into 5 years band to support with breaking down workload into more manageable groups, especially for the patients aged 80 and over who are eligible from 1st April 2026.
- Patient living in a care home - this search identifies all patients with relevant PCN DES codes to show they currently live in a care home. It is important to note that not everyone on this search will be eligible for the RSV vaccination as the care home's registration type will affect eligibility.
From 1st April 2026, eligibility to receive RSV vaccination was expanded to all patients aged 75 and over. This removed the previous upper age limit of 80.
In addition, a new cohort of patients living in a care home for older adults was added. Note that this cohort relies on information about patient living in a care home being recorded in SystmOne.
Whilst a SNOMED concept exists, there are no apparent plans for "Requires RSV vaccination" qualifying a patient for the vaccine. This is unlikely to happen in the same way that the equivalent code for shingles was only introduced in September 2023 when eligibility was widened from simply age.
Patients who have been previously invited but have not accepted the offer of a vaccine remain eligible. Practices are contractually required to send a second invitation, although no time frame is specified and could be a year or more. If a second invitation is desired, a child search could be added which looks at patients of a certain age - keep the age range relatively small to manage supply and demand.
The CQRS Enhanced Service business rules had not been updated to include the 2026 expansion when folder 034D was updated in March 2026. Once the business rules are published, PCIT will review all rules and adjust searches if necessary
Eligible for RSV vaccination
This section describes the INVITE searches .
INVITE I PA - 365 Patients over 75 eligible for RSV vaccination (exclude care home patients)
All patients who can be sent an invitation for a RSV vaccination due to:
- age 75 or older
- no previous record of vaccination
- no contraindication
- not having declined in the last 5 years
- not having been invited at least twice in the last 5 years
- and not in a care home
This search can be used to generate a list of patients for invitation. Some practices may prefer to use the searches in the Targeted recall folder to customise the invitations
REVIEW I Care Home patients with RSV exclusions
This search identifies all care home patients using the PCN DES codes for living in care home. It does exclude patients who are contraindicated or already vaccinated. It is designed to provide a list of all care home residents and this should be used alongside information on which homes are registered for older adults, and resident lists provided by those homes.
The list shows all patients coded as living in a care home, it cannot distinguish between care homes registered for older adults and those purposes such as young adults, learning disabilities or mental health. Only patients living in care homes registered for older adults are eligible for the COVID spring 2026 booster although some patients living in other homes may be eligible for other reasons such as immunosuppression.
To check if a care home is registered for older adults - go to the CQC website to search for the home and look at the Registration Details page for that home. The Service Specalism section will show the types of residents the home is registered to support and whether or not this includes 'adult over 65 years'. Note many homes have multiple specialisms so it is not always obvious from looking just at the ages of the current residents
REVIEW I Care Home Residents including RSV/COVID history_APPLY OUTPUT
This search identifies all care home residents using the PCN DES codes for living in care home. It does not exclude patients who are contraindicated or already vaccinated as it is designed to provide a list of all care home residents showing latest RSV status to support teams delivering care home vaccinations at scale. This should be used alongside information on which homes are registered for older adults, and resident lists provided by those homes.
The practice could use this search by applying the PCIT report output called Care Home Patients including RSV/COVID history to review and identify targeted patients in care homes, based on their address and COVID/RSV vaccination history. This is useful where the practice wishes to see a combined history of both vaccinations.
Like the above search, it should be used alongside information on which homes are registered for older adults, and resident lists provided by those homes.
Targeted recall
These searches are available for those Practices who wish to send customised invitations for a specific cohort. They can assist with breaking down into more manageable groups. All these searches exclude patients who have already declined or received the vaccination and those with a recorded contraindication to the RSV vaccine.
PA-370) Turned 75 in the last 2 months for RSV invitation
Patients who have turned 75 in the last 2 months or the 2 months preceding the search date (if using a relative run date). This is designed to support with routine recalls of patients turning 75 in line with the requirements to offer vaccine to patients once they have had their 75th birthday.
Using a relative run date in the future will also capture patients who are technically not yet eligible (eg: if today is 01/09/2025, set the date to 01/10/2025 to include patients due to turn 75 in the next month). This approach can be used to invite patients just prior to their 75th birthday, allowing time to generate the invitation and book the patient in for an appointment in a couple of weeks - assuming this is a typical lead time for routine vaccination appointments. It is important that the team are aware if invites are going out to patients prior to their 75th birthday that they need to be booked ON or AFTER their 75th birthday to be able to claim for the work and be covered by the PGD. Vaccinatng patients before they turn 75 is not covered by the specification unless they live in a care home for older adultsAged 75 and over
From 1st April 2026, all patients aged 75 and over become eligible. This includes patients who were not previously eligible due to turning 80 before the start of the RSV vaccination programme. For some practices, inviting all outstanding patients aged 80 and over may be significant piece of work, PCIT have therefore created a target recalls to break this work into more manageable with 5 year band between 75 and 90 and then patients aged 90 and over.
These searches do not exclude care home patients but the placeholder searches in 034U Utility tools can be added to separate out care home and housebound patients as well as supporting different methods of recall.
In April 2026 practices will need to offer the RSV vaccine to the new cohorts of patients aged 80 and over and those living in care homes for older adults. Practices also offering the Covid vaccination to these cohorts may choose to combine RSV and COVID vaccinations following advice to consider co-administration. See folder 005 for searches to support with combined clinics
Data Admin
RSV vaccination contraindicated
If patients appear in this search, consider reviewing the patient record to establish when the code was added and if it is appropriate. Patients who have received a vaccination are removed from this search.
RSV vaccination declined in last 5 years
This search lists all patients who have declined an RSV vaccine in the last 5 years. Unlike shingles, 5 years is sufficient to hide a patient from recall for the remainder of their period of eligibility.
Patients who have declined remain eligible for a vaccine until their 80th birthday. They will not appear in the "All eligible patients" search in the top level folder. Practices may wish to consider adding a child search with their own threshold for sending a further invitation to those who have declined, perhaps to those who are 78 and declined more than 3 or 5 years ago.
Received RSV vaccination
All patients over the age of 75 who have received an RSV vaccination ever.
RSV invitation in last 6 months or 2 in last 5 years
Eligible patients who have been invited for an RSV vaccination in the last 6 months, or have received 2 invitations in the last 5 years. This approach is designed to reduce the burden of sending invitations too close together and not receiving a response. Patients will reappear on an INVITE search 6 months after the first, then once a second invitation has been sent they will not appear for 5 years. Given the duration of eligibility is up to 10 years it is anticipated that a 70 year old non responder would receive further invitations at 75, and potentially another just before they turn 80.
Pregnancy
The programme for pregnant patients is designed to protect infants in utero, conferring immunity before they are born to protect their early years. This is expected to be delivered primarily by maternity services, while GP Practices will opportunistically mop up or vaccinate upon request.
Unlike the programme for older adults, patients are eligible to receive an RSV vaccination during every pregnancy. Excluding patients who have declined or previously had a vaccination should not happen.
We have decided to keep pregnant patients separate for the recall programme as search capabilities cannot reliably filter to those patients of at least 28 weeks' gestation who are eligible.
Instead, this folder identifies patients who are pregnant but at any stage. This means some patients may only be 12 weeks along, while others may be 36 weeks or have even delivered. There are a number of challenges to creating an accurate register of pregnant patients:
- Not all patients present at a similar time
- Coding pregnancy might take place as early as 6 weeks, but more likely when the patient starts to see the midwife
- Not everybody adds the code of Estimated date of delivery - this is one of the few codes that can be recorded with a future date!
- Coding for the end of the pregnancy - whether termination, miscarriage, or delivery method - is variable and heavily dependent on when information is sent to the Practice.
DISCLAIMER - For the reasons stated above, always review each record prior to inviting a patient for vaccination. It is important that a clinician establishes how many weeks' pregnant the patient is to avoid any wasted invitations or appointments. Use the report to help identify likely candidates for vaccination, then double check the record.
Coding
As of February 2026, the following codes relating to RSV vaccination are available:
| SNOMED | Term |
| 1303503001 | Administration of RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) vaccine |
| 1853501000000105 | RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) vaccination declined |
| 1853511000000107 | RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) vaccination contraindicated |
2242701000000103 | RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) vaccination invitation letter |
2242691000000103 | RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) vaccination invitation SMS |
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