001Q CQRS: Seasonal Influenza searches
The current version of CQRS: Seasonal Influenza is v7
The Seasonal influenza indicators are extracted automatically from your system approximately 10 days after the end of the monthly reporting period. 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 September, any date in October can be selected).
This article assumes the reader has access to CQRS, and can interpret the descriptions of payment indicators; only payment indicator codes are used below.
Indicator | Description | Lower age limit | Upper age limit (inclusive) |
SFLU001 | Monthly count of patients aged 65 years and over on 31 March, who have received a seasonal influenza vaccination using the recommended vaccine by the GP practice, within the reporting period. | Born before or on 31st March 1962 | No upper limit |
SFLU020 | Monthly count of the number of eligible patients aged 18 years to 64 years, identified as at risk, where the risk is clearly demonstrated by at least one unambiguous clinical code in the patient’s record, who have received a dose of the recommended seasonal influenza vaccine given by the GP practice in the reporting period. | 18 years | Born on or after 1st April 1962 |
SFLU021 | Monthly count of the number of eligible patients aged 18 years to 64 years, identified as at risk (where the only ‘at risk’ identifier is a clinical code indicating that the patient requires an influenza virus vaccination), who have received a dose of the recommended seasonal influenza vaccine given by the GP practice in the reporting period. | 18 years | Born on or after 1st April 1962 |
SFLU022 | Monthly count of frontline workers aged 18 years to 64 years, in a social care setting without an employer led occupational health scheme, who have received a dose of the recommended seasonal influenza vaccine given by the GP practice in the reporting period. | 18 years | Born on or after 1st April 1962 |
SFLU023 | Monthly count of the number of eligible patients aged 18 years to 64 years, identified as close contacts of immunocompromised individuals, who have received a dose of the recommended seasonal influenza vaccine given by the GP practice in the reporting period. | 18 years | Born on or after 1st April 1962 |
SFLU024 | The number of patients aged 18 years and over, with an Immediately Necessary Treatment status, who have received a dose of the recommended seasonal influenza vaccine given by the GP practice in the reporting period. | 18 years | No upper limit |
SFLU025 | The number of patients aged 18 years and over, with an Immediately Necessary Treatment status, who have a ‘requires influenza virus vaccination’ clinical code and who have received a dose of the recommended seasonal influenza vaccine given by the GP practice in the reporting period. | 18 years | No upper limit |
SFLU026 | Monthly count of carers aged 18 years to 64 years, who have received a dose of the recommended seasonal influenza vaccine given by the GP practice in the reporting period. | 18 years | Born on or after 1st April 1962 |
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 missed activity reports for CQRS have been designed in a standard fashion for ease of understanding.
CHECK - data in the CHECK column means that the codes used are correct, but the patient was either too old or young, or a subsequent dose was given too early or too late. It may be necessary to refer to
INVALID - data in the INVALID column means that activity has been found but with a different code that may indicate claimable activity. This column only focuses on the code and not on the age or the interval, meaning the report may need to be re-run or work out the time criteria yourself offline.
There may be a few scenarios where data appears in both CHECK and INVALID columns due to the way missed activity reports have been configured; prioritise CHECK before considering wither INVALID contains claimable activity.
One of the most common reasons patients will appear in the missed activity is because they are not eligible for a flu vaccination based on the codes on their medical record. Such patients will appear in SFLU008X report, but we strongly recommend that Practices address the report SIV-D99 Patients NOT at risk vaccinated by surgery found in folder 016 Seasonal Influenza; during the flu season it may be worth running that report on a weekly basis to identify patients who have been vaccinated without eligibility, and following clinical review add the code Needs influenza vaccination to the patient's medical record.
IMPORTANT - Patients experiencing homelessness were added to the cohorts for 2026/27 but have not yet been included in the CQRS business rules as a clinical risk group. We therefore recommend adding the Needs influenza vaccination code to eligible patients as above to ensure payment for vaccinations to this cohort.
Always check the 0% searches to ensure that single patients from the denominator are not missed!
The Full Hierarchy button on the ribbon can make checking the parent searches of 0% searches easier.
Review the CQRS article for points to consider when using these searches.
The business rules and code cluster lists for enhanced services can be found on the NHS Digital website.
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.
Version Control
v7.0 - Updated dates for 2026/27 season. Changed age limits (age over 18 only). Update to all Missed Activity reports for more consistent display of information.
v6.0 - Updated dates for 2025/26 season. Added GMS qualifier requirement.
v5.2 - Fixed missing carer requirement rule 5 in SFLUXC016. Added criteria to exclude coded data reported electronically (often appearing in Missed Activity)
v5.1 - Added Is a carer dependency. Added FIRSTVAC_DAT dependencies to check age and vaccination date.
v5.0 - Updated dates for 2024/25 season.