Flu2001

Officers

Dr David Gilbert
Chairman

Dr Ranjit Gill
LMC Executive Committee

Dr Abdul Ghafoor
LMC Executive Committee

Mr Paul Stevens
Executive Officer

FluConsortium 2006 - Solvay Announced as Primary Supplier

7th November 2006 - Surplus Vaccines?

If practices find they have excess stock after providing all their flu vaccines, they can:

1. either sell it to another practice (and some may be happy to receive it with the current shortage)
2. make a decision to vaccinate other patients where they think it is clinically reasonable
3. vaccinate patients privately from another practice but not their own.

GPs cannot charge their own practice registered patients for providing flu vaccine privately.

18th August 2006 - Flu Vaccine Delays 2006

Solvay, in common with other flu vaccine manufacturers have advised their customers that the delivery of flu vaccines will be delayed this year. The letter available from this link provides further details. Practices should contact their supplier should they require any further information.

14th February 2006

Despite best endeavours your LMC has as yet been unable to agree a rebate scheme with Stockport PCT to reduce Flu NHS prescribing costs for 2006.

Stockport LMC can therefore announce Solvay as its primary supplier for the flu purchase consortium this year.

Solvay will therefore supply their invivac product (£6.59 NHS price) to secure a profit to practice of approximately £5.63 per dose. Should PCTs subsequently see the light, Solvay have agreed that they will instead provide their influvac product to relevant practices (provided the decision is taken within the next few weeks). Influvac has an NHS price of £5.22 and gives a profit to GPs of £4.98. The proposed rebate of 65p would therefore equal the profit offered by the invivac drug but save the NHS 72p per dose or approx £175,000 across Greater Manchester!

Our secondary supplier this year is Wyeth, will supply their Enzira product to those practices where a rebate cannot be agreed which will return a profit of approximately £5.44 per dose. Wyeth will supply their Agripal product to those practices who will benefit from a rebate providing a profit to practice of £5.38.

The letter available via this link has been sent to Stockport Practices this week

Practices will notice that the suppliers will contact practices direct this year for orders.

8th February 2006

Stockport PCT have referred the rebate scheme confirmation decision to the Practice Based Commissioning Board. Your LMC is continuing to have discussions with Stockport PCT to determine who can actually take the decision and will provide an update as soon as possible

Stockport PCT have indicated that they will be able to provide a decision regarding a possible rebate scheme by Monday 6th February. Stockport LMC has therefore deferred formal confirmation of the successful suppliers until Tuesday 7th February. Any practices with any queries regarding this matter should contact Paul Stevens on 07770 616235.

Tender papers were issued to Flu Suppliers in November 2005. A decision regarding preferred and secondary supplier is expected to be announced on Friday 13th January 2006.

As last year practices should note that the consortium’s decision will be based on the following criteria:

Choosing two suppliers whose Supply Chain is not linked.
Best combination of Profit to GP and NHS price
Suppliers Track Record

Naturally, should you have any queries in respect of this year’s consortium please do not hesitate to contact me.