005B COVID booster recall
The latest version of 005B COVID Spring 2026 RECALL is v1.0
COVID boosters became part of the Seasonal Vaccinations specification from Spring 2026. These searches identify patients over the age of 6 months who would be eligible to receive a COVID vaccination in the Spring 2026 campaign. It forms part of the 005 COVID Vaccination Spring 2026 collection of search folders.
Following changes in 2025 the number of eligible patients is significantly less than the Autumn 2024 and earlier campaigns.
Searches
These searches should be used as the basis of a recall. They are built to only include eligible patients in the cohort, but exclude anybody who has been vaccinated since the start of the current campaign.
Practices may notice a significant difference to the search results depending on the date they use to run the search. This is due to how the recall searches handle invitations, especially when running the folder to issue a chasing invitation. Patients are excluded if they have had 2 separate invitations in during the campaign, or an invitation was sent in the last 6 weeks - running the folder with a future run date may pick up patients who have been invited very recently.
Please read the section "Immunosuppression" below before issuing any invitations to patients in the 6m-74y immunosuppressed search
Recall of immunocompromised patients
The COVID Spring 2026 campaign includes patients aged 6 months to 74 years who are immunocompromised. A limitation of reference sets used is that some codes do not qualify for a vaccination. The cohort has been separated into those who could be invited straightaway (search CVP-B25), and those who should be checked by a clinician (search CVP-B26) prior to invitation.
It is intended that practices work down these searches from CVP-B21 through to CVP-B28.
- Patients living in care homes are only found in the corresponding recall search (CVP-B21) to minimise the chance of inappropriate invitations. Practices who do not look after care homes should still check this search as any included patients will not receive an invitation. If appropriate, consider adding a code to record that the patient no longer lives in a care home.
- Patients who are housebound are only found in recall search (CVP-B28), giving an opportunity to send a tailored invitation which may put them on a list for a home visit or district nurse visit.
CVP-B21) REVIEW Care Home Patients for COVID vaccination
This search includes all patients who are coded as living in a care home using the codes in the PCN DES. It may be useful to review the cohort in the 005A COHORTS folder if the practice would like to add patients living at specific addresses who may not have an appropriate code.
It is important to note that ONLY patients living in Care Homes registered for Older Adults are eligible for the Spring 2026 COVID vaccination. The report may need to be exported to excel to remove patients in homes that are not registered for Older Adults before arranging vaccinations. It is always recommended to contact the Care Home to get a current list of residents rather than relying on EMIS coding to avoid missing eligible patients.
The support article for 005A COVID Spring 2026 COHORTS has more information on the Care Homes cohort and how to check if a specific home is eligible.
The report output for this search includes the patient's RSV vaccination status. This is to support practices choosing to co-administer the COVID and RSV vaccines following the expansion of the RSV vaccination programme to include patients living in a care home from 1st April 2026.
Any patients who appear on this list but are not currently resident in a care home can be removed by coding 'lives in own home'. This will then ensure they move into the appropriate recall list below.
CVP-B22) INVITE Over 75s for COVID invitation
This search includes patients who are eligible for the COVID vaccination due to age. The eligibility criteria Spring 2026 is patients aged 75 or who will be aged 75 on 30/6/2026. The search will therefore include some patients currently aged 74 who are eligible for vaccination even if they have not yet turned 75.
The search excludes patients living in care homes or currently coded as housebound. Practices may wish to review both the Care Homes and Housebound lists first to ensure any patients who appear on those lists in error get an appropriate invitation.
Note that CVP-B22 includes all patients eligible for COVID regardless of their RSV eligibility. Practices who wish to split this cohort into patients eligible for both COVID and RSV and those just eligible for COVID should use CVP-B23 and CVP-B24 - see below for details.
CVP-B23) INVITE Over 75s for combined RSV and COVID invitation
The Spring 2026 COVID vaccination campaign coincides with the expansion of the RSV vaccination scheme to include all patients aged 80 and over AND patients living in a care home for older adults. The recommendation is to consider co-administration so practices can either send the same invitation to all patients using CVP-B22 or they may wish to send different invitation messages to patients who are eligible for COVID and RSV and those eligible for just COVID.
This search excludes patients who have already received the RSV vaccination or have been coded as declined or contraindicated.
CVP-B24) INVITE Over 75s for just COVID invitation
This search includes all patients in the Over 75s cohort who are not eligible for RSV vaccination.
This search includes patients who have already received the RSV vaccination or have been coded as declined or contraindicated.
CVP-B25) INVITE Immunosuppressed for COVID invitation
This search includes patients who should always be eligible according to the Green Book such as those with a history of a condition and those currently undergoing immune suppressing treatment.
CVP-B26) REVIEW Immunosuppressed patients requiring REVIEW prior to invite
This search takes the remaining likely immunosuppressed patients who must be checked against Green Book criteria to determine whether they are eligible. A significant proportion are likely to be patients on non-biological immune modulating drugs such as methotrexate - the total daily/weekly dose must be checked against the Box 1 in the Green Book, while others may have conditions that should be clinically reviewed prior to invitation.
Given the potential size of this report, exporting to view in Excel may be a far more effective approach to sorting and reviewing the cohort.
Primary Care IT strongly recommends that this report is reviewed carefully prior to any invitations being issued. The reports for adults and children have been built to show the codes or medications that are likely to make a patient eligible for a vaccine.
The report output includes a number of columns to extract various conditions and drugs which are likely to make a patient eligible, depending on when they last occurred.
- Patients who have been confirmed as eligible from this search would need to be invited manually. Ensure that invitation coding is consistent with any action taken for patients in search CVP-B22.
- We also recommend that the reviewing clinician adds a code of Patient immunocompromised to the record to document eligibility which helps alerts flag the patient's eligibility and to validate payment.
CVP-B28) Housebound patients for COVID invitation
This search includes any housebound patients over the age of 75 as well as patients who would have appeared in search CVP-B25 due to a persisting immune suppressed condition.
Housebound patients who might need a review are not included, and should be identified during the review of report CVP-B26. A column for housebound status is provided.
The report output is designed to support practices reviewing the list and using the information to arrange visits. It includes full contact information, any language requirements or reasonable adjustment flags, information about whether the patient has a carer listed and the latest COVID vaccination given as well as the latest code if the patient has previously declined the COVID vaccination. In addition, the patient's RSV vaccination status has been added for Spring 2026 due to the recommendation to consider co-administration and the new cohort of patients aged 80 and above from 1st April 2026.
Coding
It should be noted that the relevant searches built by PCIT contain all codes and not just those which are specified to ensure that all patients are captured correctly in case the wrong code was used on a record.
COVID vaccination declined
SARS-CoV-2 vaccination declined [1156270003] (and all children)
SARS-CoV-2 immunisation course declined [1324811000000107]
SARS-CoV-2 protection maintenance course declined [1362651000000105]
COVID vaccination invitation
SARS-CoV-2 vaccination invitation letter [1402921000000102] (and all children)
SARS-CoV-2 vaccination telephone invitation [1402931000000100] (and all children)
SARS-CoV-2 vaccination invitation email [1403101000000104] (and all children)
SARS-CoV-2 vaccination invitation SMS [1403031000000106] (and all children)
COVID vaccination
Administration of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine [1156257007] (and all children)
SARS-CoV-2 protection maintenance course started [1362681000000104]
SARS-CoV-2 protection maintenance course started [1362691000000102]
Immunisation course to maintain protection against SARS-CoV-2 [1362591000000103]
Invitation planning
See folder 005U COVID Utility Tools for placeholder reports covering different types of recall message. These reports can be added to the recall searches to separate out patients who are suitable for SMS invitations, those who may need a postal invitation. There is also a report for those with an email address for practices who would like to prioritise email invitations to reduce SMS costs.
Think about other elements you can bring into a search to avoid inviting patients who are already booked in by excluding future appointments using a certain slot type.
References
Support Information
Development Log
VERSION NUMBER 4.0.0
V/N 4.0.0 - Updated for Spring 2026 - new folder structure
V/N: 3.0.0 - Updated for Autumn 2025, including new reports for vaccinations given elsewhere in previous campaigns.
V/N: 2.3.0 - Addition of Housebound searches.
V/N: 2.2.0 - Updated for Autumn 2024
V/N: 1.0.0 - Published 1st September 2023
Communications Log
π Announcing the COVID Vaccine Spring 2026 Campaign Searches! ππ
Exciting news for healthcare providers! Our searches are designed to streamline the COVID vaccine booster campaign and enhance patient care. π©Ίπͺ
Key Features:
π Easy Patient Identification: Quickly locate eligible patients for the spring booster campaign
π Vaccine Coverage Tracking: Monitor vaccine coverage rates within your patient population
π Data Quality Checks: Identify and rectify data errors effortlessly
The COVID Vaccine Spring Campaign Searches simplify the vaccination process, ensuring eligible patients receive timely reminders and care. It's available now and integrated seamlessly into EMIS Web and SystmOne. π₯π
Join us in making the COVID vaccine campaign efficient and effective. Let's ensure that every eligible patient receives the protection they need! ππ
#COVIDVaccine #BoosterCampaign #HealthcareProviders #DataAccuracy #PatientCare #IntegratedTools
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