{
  "abstract": "Aim The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) recommends that practitioners should take every opportunity to enquire about vaccination history. 1 The aim of this study was to identify existing gaps in immunisation history taking for paediatric patient admissions in a children’s hospital setting with the goal of improving accuracy, timely intervention and communication of missed vaccinations to the hospital multi-disciplinary teams (MDT).Method All patients admitted to the children’s hospital between April and June 2025 were identified, and a medication and immunisation history was taken by a paediatric pharmacy technician (PT). Infants less than 8 weeks of age and oncology patients were excluded. The immunisation history was taken by a PT using the following sources: patient or parent/carer, General Practitioner (GP) record, red book (if available) and National Summary of Care Record (NSCR). This was compared to the immunisation schedule and documented on the medicines on admission record. Any discrepancies were highlighted to the pharmacist or doctor on the ward for possible intervention. Details of the immunisation history taken by the clerking doctor on admission were obtained from the clinical notes as documented in the patient’s electronic record.Results Two hundred children fitted the criteria for review. All of these had an immunisation history taken and documented by a PT. Sixty-five patients were admitted under general medicine, 47 under surgery and 88 under a range of clinical specialties including paediatric intensive care unit, neurology and gastroenterology. The immunisation history was documented by the clerking physician in 29% of cases overall: 34/65 (52%) in general medicine, 10/47 (21%) in surgery and 15/88 (17%) in specialty areas. Overall, 4 children (2%) were found to be completely unvaccinated and 25/200 (12.5%) were only partially vaccinated or behind on the schedule.Conclusion This study showed that the recording of immunisation status by the clerking doctor was low and therefore opportunities to improve vaccine uptake would have been missed. The number of children unvaccinated or with incomplete vaccination schedules found in this audit was similar to that reported by NHS Digital. 2 The PT is well placed to undertake a full immunisation history at the time of checking the medication history and escalate any concerns to the MDT for hesitancy queries and timings of next doses. Specific training around immunisations has been provided to the paediatric PT team to support this work and improve the RCPCH goal of ‘making every contact count’.References 1.RCPCH. Immunisations-RCPCH-State of Child Health [Internet]. stateofchildhealth.rcpch.ac.uk.2020. Available from: https://stateofchildhealth.rcpch.ac.uk/evidence/prevention-of-ill-health/immunisations/ Childhood Vaccination Coverage Statistics [Internet]. NHS Digital. 2024. Available from: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-immunisations-statistics",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Leeds Children’s Hospital, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Karen Dixon"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Leeds Children’s Hospital, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Penny North-Lewis"
    }
  ],
  "title": "P06 Are doctors asking/documenting immunisation status for paediatric patients on admission clerking?",
  "uid": "f311be8a-a1df-5b8b-9624-86d9055a1820"
}