001S CQRS: COVID
The current version of 001S CQRS: COVID is v1.0
COVID vaccination claim
The COVID vaccination programme indicators are mostly extracted automatically from your system approximately 10 days after the end of the monthly reporting period and will appear on CQRS a few days after that (COV001-COV003 on CQRS). Practices have a short opportunity to check their data prior to extraction and maximise their income potential. For reviewing data in historic months, the relative run date may be any date in the month following the achievement period (eg: for the achievement period of April, any date in May can be selected).
For more information on identifying eligible patients, refer to this article.
For more information on identifying eligible patients, refer to this article.
A small number of patients may fall into the manual indicators COVM001-COVM006 and further information on these extra indicators can be found at the end of this article.
This article assumes the reader has access to CQRS, and can interpret the descriptions of payment indicators; only payment indicator codes are used below.
Automated CQRS Indicators
Indicator | Description | Lower age limit | Upper age limit |
COV001 | Monthly count of patients aged 6 months and
over, who have received a COVID-19 vaccination using the recommended vaccine,
given by the GP practice, within the Spring/Summer (April through to June)
vaccination period. | 6 months | none |
COV002 | Monthly count of patients aged 6 months and
over, who have received a COVID-19 vaccination using the recommended vaccine,
given by the GP practice, within the Autumn/Winter (September through to
January) vaccination period. | 6 months | none |
COV003 | Monthly count of patients aged 6 months and
over, who have received a COVID-19 vaccination using the recommended vaccine,
given by the GP practice outside of the COVID-19 seasonal campaign vaccination
periods (February, March, July or August). | 6 months | none |
Note that each of these indicators covers a specific time period in the year. This means that each month will see results in ONE of the three indicators while the other two will return 0.
The main searches closely mirror the business rules to properly reflect the CQRS count, but each search is also based on a denominator (dependency) search designed by PCIT to include patients who may not be picked up by the extraction. These are similarly named, but with square brackets (eg: [COV001] ). When reviewing the figures prior to CQRS extraction, Practices are looking for the searches in the top folder to show 100%. When the search is not 100%, Practices can refer to the corresponding report in the Missed Activity folder. It is also possible to use the Check Patient feature to try to understand why a patient has been picked up in the denominator search but not for CQRS. There are several reasons why a patient may not be included in an indicator, and these all need to be considered.
- The vaccination was recorded without the GMS qualifier. The business rules require that vaccinations given under GMS should be recorded correctly. Failure to select GMS may lead to the vaccination not being recognised for payment.
- The wrong code was added. Only the code 'Administration of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine' [1156257007] will count towards payment for the Spring 2026 vaccination programme. Other codes that may have been used in previous season will not be picked up in the CQRS achievement and may need to be corrected to ensure the claim is correct. We recommend using an up-to-date template or the PCIT COVID vaccination clinic protocol to minimise the chances of this occurring.
- Patient has already been vaccinated this season. If the patient has already had a COVID vaccination recorded for the current vaccination season then it will not be possible to claim for a second vaccination. This usually indicates that a patient has been vaccinated by a 3rd party provider such as a pharmacy or vaccination centre and then also received a vaccination in the practice.
Code required for payment for Spring 2026 vaccination programme
Administration of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine [1156257007]
Note that this also has a synonym 'Administration of vaccine product against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2' which has the same SNOMED code [1156257007] and either version of the code will be accepted. If in doubt check the concept ID is 1156257007.
Missed Activity
Reports to help review potential data can be found in the Missed Activity folder, named with the indicator code followed by an X. If the searches have run, highlight the report and press View Results from the ribbon or right click for the quick menu.
The business rules for COV001, COV002 and COV003 do not check eligibility beyond the patient's age at event (6 months or older). Instead the rules focus on date of any previous vaccination, the coding of the latest vaccination and the GMS flag.
If a patient appears on the Missed Activity report it will usually be for one of the following reasons:
- Patient has been vaccinated but the correct code has not been recorded
- Patient has been vaccinated with the correct code but did not have the GMS flag added to show that the vaccination was given by the practice
- Patient was aged less than 6 months at time of vaccination
Vaccinations recorded against an 'EXTERNAL' user will be excluded from all searches in the COVID folder. These reflect vaccination records received from 3rd party providers so should not need to be reviewed for potential inclusion in CQRS payment indicators.
The Full Hierarchy button on the ribbon can make checking the parent searches of 0% searches easier.
While the main searches have been built to closely mirror the business rules, there is a creative element to the denominator searches. Where the main search isn't 100%, don't discount that there are other factors which erroneously brought the patient into the denominator search. PCIT is always happy to hear about problems, but is unable to assist with every query why a specific patient is/isn't included.
Manual CQRS Indicators
An additional 6 manual indicators for COVID were added to CQRS in May. These indicators were not included in the published business rules for the COVID vaccination programme so details have been taken purely from the indicator descriptions in CQRS.
These indicators are NOT currently included in 001S but guidance has been included in this article as additional support for practices.
Indicator | Description |
COVM001 | Monthly count of patients aged 6m and over who have received a third COVID-19 vaccination using the recommended vaccine given by the GP practice, in the months of Feb through to August (outside of Autumn/Winter vaccination period) and this vaccination is not within 90 days of previous vaccination |
COVM002 | As above but within A/W period (Sep-Jan) |
COVM003 | Monthly count of patients aged 6m and over, who have received a COVID-19 vacciantion using the recommended vaccine given by the GP practice, within 90 days of their previous vaccination, in the months of Feb through to August (outside of A/W period) |
COVM004 | As above but within A/W period (Sep-Jan) |
COVM005 | Monthly count of patients aged 6m and over with an Immediately Necessary Treatment status who have received a COVID-19 vaccination using the recommended vaccine given by the GP practice, in the months of Feb-Aug (not A/W period) |
COVM006 | As above but within A/W period (Sep-Jan) |
Each indicator applies to either the Spring/Summer period or the Autumn/Winter period and dates will depend on the published start dates for the seasonal vaccination schedule. This means that practices will only need to check the 3 indicators that apply for the current season and can enter 0 in the the other 3 indicators.
COVM001
This indicator looks for patients who received 2 doses of COVID vaccination between 1/2/2026 and 12/4/26. As these dates are in the period inbetween the seasonal vaccination programme these doses would have been administered under the year-round pathway which will only apply to a small number of patients. These patients then need to have received a 3rd dose of COVID vaccination from the GP practice in the claim month but more than 90 days after the most recent dose. Due to the 90 day rule, practices will not have any patients in this indicator for the April claim.
COVM003
This indicator looks for patients who had a COVID vaccination in February, March or the first part of April (outside of the seasonal programmes) AND a dose from the practice last month with LESS than 90 days between the two doses. As this is outside standard recommendations it is quite unusual to do this but may happen if you have someone who qualified for vaccination under the year round pathway and then needed an urgent COVID vaccination in April. For example we occasionally see this where the patient has required an accelerated course of vaccination prior to starting chemotherapy. Usually practices will be aware of these cases as they will need to be separately flagged and recalled.
COVM005
This indicator allows practices to claim for Immediate/Necessary patients who were registered for the purposes of COVID vaccination. These are usually care home patients living in a practice's aligned care home but not registered with a PCN practice, therefore needing I/N registration for vaccination to be administered. Practices will usually have a separate record of this due to the I/N registration paperwork and care home vaccination lists.
As the manual indicators were only announced in mid-May and have not been added to the published business rules they are not currently included in 001S CQRS: COVID but are in the process of being assessed.
Version History
v1.0 - Spring 2026 vaccination programme updates
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