8 October 2020

Dear colleagues,

Emerging evidence suggests that an estimated 10% of people who contract COVID-19 cannot shake off the effects of the virus months after initially falling ill – a phenomenon described by some as ‘Long Covid’. Many of you will have already seen patients displaying some of the symptoms: breathlessness, chronic fatigue, brain fog, anxiety and stress linked to Long Covid. Therefore, yesterday we announced a raft of measures being put in place to help affected patients. These will include development of new guidance to support clinicians, including GPs and allied health professionals, as well as investing £10million to help develop multidisciplinary diagnostic services. More services will also be added to Your Covid Recovery from the end of this month. A ‘Long Covid Taskforce’ will be established to oversee these and further developments and we will keep you updated of progress.

‘Help Us, Help You’ campaign

NHS England’s ‘Help Us, Help You’ campaign seeks to address the barriers that can deter patients from accessing the NHS and help the public understand how they safely access the best services for them. Look out this week for a new phase of the campaign encouraging the public to contact their GP if they are worried about a symptom that could be cancer. A toolkit with supporting resources, including promotional materials, will be available on Public Health England Campaign Resource Centre this afternoon for use from Friday. 

General Practice webinar

Following your feedback during the last General Practice webinar and the volume of information for us to share, we will aim for our regular webinars to take place fortnightly going forward. The next General Practice Webinar will take place on Thursday 15 October, from 5pm - 6pm. To attend please ensure you register in advance. To make the process easier, we will be using a rolling registration system going forward, so if you have registered for the previous webinar on 1 October you will not need to register again.  

Nikki and Ed

COVID-19 guidance and updates

New government PPE strategy published

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has published its strategy for providing personal protective equipment (PPE), detailing preparations for a second wave of COVID-19 alongside usual seasonal pressures. DHSC have stated that four-month stockpiles of each PPE category will be in place from November, to provide a continuous flow to health and social care workers treating COVID-19 patients. It will continue to buy centrally through to the end of March with further detail about post-March arrangements expected in due course.

General practice

Supporting Mentors Scheme qualification update

We have heard and responded to feedback in relation to the recognised accredited qualification that mentors should receive via the supporting mentors scheme. Whilst we originally presented ILM Level 5 in Coaching and Mentoring as a benchmark example, we recognise that there are a number of other mentorship qualifications that are equally of high quality and would equip mentors with appropriate mentoring skills and knowledge. We have therefore revised the national guidance so that, with the agreement of the respective NHS England and NHS Improvement regional colleague, systems may consider utilising another equivalent qualification.

New to Partnership Payment Scheme Supporting Evidence

In some instances individuals have not been able to obtain the evidence required to support their application to the New to Partnership Payment Scheme. Through discussion with the BMA, we have identified alternative evidence that can be submitted for two aspects:

• We currently ask for a copy of the Partnership Agreement to evidence partnership role and equity share - where this is not available we will now accept a headed letter from the practice to confirm these details.
• To evidence the practice contract type we originally requested a copy of the GMS, PMS or APMS contract - we will now instead check the CQC website to obtain this information. We will however still require a copy of any APMS contracts, to demonstrate time remaining on the contract.

We have updated the guidance documents to reflect these changes. If you have already applied to the scheme but weren’t able to gain the original evidence documents requested, you will be contacted by our team – there is no need for you to reapply.

Primary care

Safeguarding in virtual consultations in primary care

Bath, Swindon and Wiltshire (BSW) CCG have developed a document which gives advice to all GPs about the consideration of Safeguarding in all virtual consultations, including both phone and video calls. This document has also been reviewed and endorsed by the National Network of Named GPs for Safeguarding (NNNGP) which is the body commissioned by NHS England and NHS Improvement to support Primary Care Safeguarding. Reading and applying this document, then reflecting upon consultations where this document has been helpful, can be written up as a Safeguarding e-portfolio entry, and will count towards Safeguarding CPD. 

The NHS Staff Feedback Hub needs you

This remains an extraordinary and challenging time for the NHS. We need to hear from a wide range of people working in primary care during COVID-19 so that we can understand how best to support our NHS people. Please register for the NHS Staff Feedback Hub and tell us about your experiences, concerns and help us test our ideas so that we can make the best decisions for the NHS. The hub is private and anonymous and run by Ipsos MORI, the independent research organisation. It is available to anyone working in the NHS.

Community pharmacy

Update on bipolar drug Priadel

The Competition and Markets Authority has announced an investigation into whether Essential Pharma ‘abused a dominant market position’ in relation to its supply of lithium-based treatments for bipolar disorder. Following the opening of the investigation Essential Pharma have said they will continue to supply the drug Priadel, removing the previous immediate threat to patients. The investigation comes after public criticism of the company by NHS England Chief Executive Sir Simon Stevens. Further guidance on Priadel following the previous CAS alert is expected from DHSC shortly.

Dates for your diary

8 - 9 October. UK Annual Social Prescribing Link Worker Day Awards and Conference. A virtual awards ceremony and conference is set to mark the day.

Tuesday 13 October, 11am - 12pm. Building back from COVID-19: Involving citizens in the next phase of pandemic response

Thursday 15 October, 5pm - 6pm. General Practice Webinar with Ed Waller and Nikki Kanani. To attend please ensure you register by 12pm on 14 October. If you have registered for the previous webinar on 1 October you will not need to register again as we will now use a rolling registration system.  

Wednesday 11 November, 9am - 8pm. NHS Confederation: PCN Network virtual conference

Link of the day

Oxford AHSN webinar bringing together examples of innovative ways to assess and manage patients with suspected COVID-19 in the community.