Primary Care Bulletin - this week's round-up

9 September 2021

Dear colleagues,

The pandemic has dramatically changed how we live and work and the NHS has worked relentlessly to adapt so we can care for our patients and communities. We know how much personal energy and commitment you have all given to providing the best care possible.

NHS staff have been grateful to receive overwhelming support from the public since the start of the pandemic last year.

During what is the biggest healthcare crisis in a generation, we’ve worked to make sure we can deliver services in new and different ways, to maintain care and we’ve had to do this at speed, while we know also that some people’s care and access to treatment has unavoidably been disrupted despite the best efforts of the health service.

Unfortunately, we have received reports that members of staff, including colleagues working in primary care, are being subjected to abuse.

Everyone has the right to be safe at work, and we want to reiterate in the strongest possible terms that violence and aggression towards NHS staff is totally unacceptable. Anyone with concerns should raise concerns with their managers or employers. Staff facing abuse will always have our support and that of their local system.

We are also working with partner organisations to develop practical support for primary care employers and employees, and staff can also access support via the national health and wellbeing support offer.

We remain grateful to the majority of public who are respectful to our primary care and wider NHS colleagues and appreciate the work they do.

Nikki and Ed

COVID-19 updates

Removal of Children and Young People from the Shielded Patient List (SPL)

Last month, it was announced that all CYP are removed from the SPL following an evidence review which found the COVID-19 risk of hospital admission, critical care and death for CYP to be very low. These individuals received a letter from Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, informing them of this decision.

As such, CYP COVID-19 risk status is no longer being shared with the health and care system.

Clinicians are no longer required to flag CYP as high risk on their medical record. High-risk Flags for CYP will remain visible on clinicians’ local systems but CYP are no longer included on the national SPL. Clinicians may choose to review CYP in their care and revise their high-risk status to moderate/low risk to reflect the updated guidance if they wish.

COVID-19 Vaccination Programme – workspace

General practice

Uplift to maximum reimbursement rates under the Network Contract DES Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme

Following confirmation of the 3% pay uplift for Agenda for Change, the maximum reimbursement rates for each role under the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) of the Network Contract DES will be uplifted to be in line with the Agenda for Change rates. An initial assumption of an uplift of 2.1% was already applied to the 2021/22 rates from the previous year; the updated rates (as set out below), which will be included prospectively in the Network Contract DES from October, will reflect the full 3%. This change does not affect the overall value of a PCN’s ARRS sum.

View the updated ARRS maximum reimbursement rates from October 2021 on FutureNHS here. For any queries please contact england.gpcontracts@nhs.net.

Supporting your career as a GP

A short series of webinars were held this summer to demonstrate the support available to you as a GP throughout various stages of your career. If you were unable to attend, the recordings and slides from these sessions are now available on the GP Career Support Hub.

• GP Career Support Offers, gives a general overview of the offers available to GPs.
• Welcome to General Practice, aimed at GP trainees and newly qualified GPs and includes sessions delivered by the GMC, RCGP and HEE.
• Mid-Career GPs webinar, describes the support available to established GPs in the middle of their career.

New to Partnership Payment scheme

The New to Partnership Payment scheme is in place to support GPs and other registered health care professionals in establishing themselves in their new partnership role, offering a one-off financial payment and up to a £3,000 non-clinical training fund to be utilised within their first year. New partners must meet all of the scheme criteria and apply to the scheme within six months of commencing in their partnership role. Please ensure you apply to the scheme within this time frame to be eligible for the payment.

General practice - latest updates

Primary care

All ages 24/7 mental health crisis lines across the country – comms pack

NHS all ages 24/7 mental health crisis lines are available across the country and should be promoted to patients who might need urgent support with their mental health. Following our national announcement on our urgent mental health crisis lines in July, we are encouraging colleagues to promote their crisis lines locally. To support this, we have created a communications pack containing top lines, social media messaging and videos for circulation. You can find your local mental health helpline via nhs.uk/urgentmentalhealth.

Know Your Numbers! Week: Benefits of home blood pressure monitoring

Know Your Numbers! Week, from 6-11, September aims to raise awareness of high blood pressure and the opportunity to improve blood pressure control both now, and in the future. Regular blood pressure monitoring could prevent up to 500 heart attacks and almost 750 strokes over five years across 50,000 patients.

Encouragingly, around 30% of patients with hypertension already have their own monitor. This is supplemented by the Blood Pressure @home programme, which has allocated a number of home blood pressure monitors to CCGs to help support patients to monitor their blood pressure at home. If you’d like to understand what is happening in your area, please go to our FutureNHS workspace (login required) to find your local contacts.

New programme launches to fuel innovation in social prescribing

A new programme launched last week to help national voluntary organisations from across multiple sectors particularly financial wellbeing, arts, nature and physical activity to work together alongside local communities to increase the scale and impact of social prescribing activities.

The Accelerating Innovation in social prescribing programme is led by the National Academy for Social Prescribing, Royal Voluntary Service and NHS England and NHS Improvement in partnership with others. It will bring together a community of practice of national organisations to support their needs and drive innovation to help maximise their contribution to the growing social prescribing community. This will include developing good connections with local health and care and community groups, harnessing existing skills and assets, and sharing innovative best practice to grow the provision of social prescribing activities. 

Find out more and register your interest in joining the Community of Practice.

Afghan relocation and resettlement schemes: advice for primary care

Public Health England has produced guidance for primary care professionals concerning the Afghan relocation and resettlement schemes and is intended as a resource to support assessing and addressing individuals health needs.

This complements advice and announced funding support for commissioners on expectations of primary care support for individuals and families moved into temporary bridging accommodation: facilitating GP registration for all individuals and commissioning a robust wrap around service to provide an enhanced health assessment to identify and manage immediate health and care requirements.

EU change in rules on foods required for medical reasons

From 1 January 2021, if travelling to the EU from a non-EU country you are no longer allowed to bring any meat or dairy products with you, except for limited quantities of some products that are for personal consumption. Restrictions to the quantities of powdered infant milk, infant food and special foods required for medical reasons when travelling to the EU changed from 10 kg per person to 2 kg per person. The product must not require refrigeration before consumption; must be a packaged proprietary brand product; and its packaging must be unbroken unless in current use. The latest information on travel to EU countries is available here.

RCGP: health inequalities course

This course explores health inequalities, what they are and why they matter to patients, communities and practitioners. The first module offers an introduction to health inequalities which will be relevant to all practitioners in the UK, as well as an overview of NHS England and NHS Improvement’s Health Inequalities Improvement Programme. The course is free to RCGP members and other healthcare professionals in the UK.

Get involved

NHS Flexible Working Network

Primary care colleagues are invited to join our NHS Flexible Working Network. Aimed at those working in the NHS with an interest or curiosity about flexible working, the network brings discussion and insight to its members on a quarterly basis. The next meeting is on 5 October. Contact weworkflexibly@nhs.net to join.

NHS Race Equality Strategy – all staff consultation

The NHS England and NHS Improvement Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) team is developing a five-year race equality strategy. The aim is to establish a standard for advancing race equality, eliminating discrimination and fostering good relations for staff/workers across our organisations, operations and services. Due for publication in October 2021, we are consulting and gathering views.

All NHS staff are invited to contribute and share their thoughts. Your involvement in this journey can genuinely help transform our commitment to race equality into tangible action. You can contribute online and we will also hold virtual consultation events on Microsoft Teams.

The closing date for the online consultation is 12 September 2021.

Blogs, case studies and podcasts

Blog: Using video consultations for children and young people

If you work with children or young people and you’d like to learn more about using video conferencing for patient consultations, read the latest NHSX blog. Chris Bound, a children and young people diabetes lead clinical nurse specialist at Imperial College Hospital, London, talks about how he’s been using video calling throughout the pandemic and the benefits it brings for patients and their families.

Case studies: Working Together for Better Lives

Mid and south Essex Health and Care Partnership are launching a new series of local case studies under the banner of ‘Working Together for Better Lives’. The case studies aim to demonstrate how organisations across mid and south Essex are coming together to work in partnership to improve people’s lives. The case studies focus on Primary Care Network (PCN) development as well as population health management to highlight work taking place locally towards the prevention, transformation, and collaboration agenda.

Key dates

6 – 12 September – Know your Numbers Week, blood pressure testing and awareness event

12 September – closing date for the NHS Race Equality Strategy – all staff consultation

1 October 2021 – Primary Care Network Contract DES to take effect

Upcoming events and webinars

13 September, 4pm - 5.15pm. Health Inequalities - Priority 2: Mitigating against digital exclusion

15 September, 1.30pm - 2.30pm. Social Prescribing Link Worker webinar series - weight management

15 September, 2pm - 3.30pm. How much do you know about your NHS pension?

16 September, 10.30am - 12.30pm. Understanding multigenerational teams: how to be flexible and thrive

21 September, 6.30pm - 7.30pm. RCGP: QOF QI module for care of people with learning disabilities

23 September, 9am - 10am. Introducing innovation to the lipid management pathway

29 September, 5.30pm - 7pm. Enhanced Health in Care Homes: primary care networks and community health

30 September, 11am - 2.15pm. Health Inequalities - Priority 3: Ensuring datasets are complete and timely

30 September, 1pm - 2pm. Implementing the two-hour crisis response at scale across systems

Link of the day

 What are GPs actually doing?
Dr Jon Griffiths explains what’s really happening in general practice