January 2026 Updates and Webinar

Happy New everyone and hope you’ve all been able to enjoy some time off over Christmas.

Post-Christmas tends to be when we all focus more on QOF, so we’re going to do a webinar, looking at how our spreadsheet and systems can help you with QOF, and what things you should be doing towards year-end. It will be on Tuesday, 20 Jan at 1pm, and we’ll record it for anyone who can’t make it. Go here to sign up - https://bit.ly/WelbyWebinar

Prescribing Updates

• Childhood Imms Schedule – we’ve updated the invites and prompts to reflect the new 18m imms. Children will only fall into these invites once they’ve had the 12m imms, and with at least a 4w gap between.
• UKMEC changes – we’ve updated our system to reflect the recent changes. Key points…
  • New consideration - Multiple risk factors for VTE
  • One-off BPs no longer considered – now only looking for raised average readings or a confirmed HTN diagnosis
  • Not new to UKMEC – we’ve built reports to identify patients who’ve only had migraines since starting CHC

We’ve updated all our links and information to point to the new resources - https://www.cosrh.org/Public/Public/Standards-and-Guidance/uk-medical-eligibility-criteria-for-contraceptive-use-ukmec.aspx

• Shingles/Pnuemo invites – option to send a questionnaire with the 3^rd invite that allows a patient to record they’ve declined the vaccine or had it elsewhere
• Overhaul of prescribing reports and folders planned for end of January

Recall Updates

• Monitoring Iron supplements – when starting a patient on iron, there’s a new pop-up to ask whether you want to monitor FBC & Ferritin at 4w post initiation, and then every 3m until 6m after the end of the course.
• Request Tests Template – improved information displayed on obs/samples and investigations page
• Invite protocols – these now check that an invite is necessary and send different messages if patients only need to bring in a sample
• Alignment of invites and Recall Overview – where practices are configured to change the invite/appointment booking for a patient who’s submitted a BP on target in the QOF year (and the last 6m), the Recall Overview, will reflect that and won’t advise taking a BP. Previously there could be some confusion as a patient would be invited for blood test only but then recall overview would advise taking a BP.
• AR Pink – improved information in prompts to clarify when a patient is housebound
• Integration with other systems – we’ve tweaked some reports to account for invites that may have been sent using Ardens’ Annual Review invites – this should help practices who’ve switched from Ardens invites mid-year. We also now the functionality to link in with resources provided by CDRC as well as Ardens.
• Update of Recall Invites and changes for new QOF year planned for end of March

Pathology Updates

• Automated Statin Offers – these will be delayed by a couple of days after lipids have come back, to allow time for ALT/LFTs to come back so that patients aren’t erroneously advised they need another blood test.

As ever, we really appreciate your feedback and suggestions and it's great to work with you all!