9 February 2021

Dear colleagues,

Protecting frontline health and care workers from COVID-19 is a top priority, and it is crucial that all eligible staff are offered vaccines and supported to accept them. We ask that you work with your local system partners to ensure that any staff who have not yet been offered a vaccine are offered one as soon as is practically possible. 

We are asking all providers to ensure that they continue to focus effort to address vaccine inequality and ensure that no one gets left behind. We ask that you support locum staff who you work with to access vaccination. A full list of those frontline health and social care workers who are eligible can be found here.

To make sure all frontline health workers have been offered vaccination, your local CCG will be in touch this week to gather information on the proportion of your staff that have been vaccinated. CCGs will aim to confirm that all eligible staff have been vaccinated by 15 February and will be grateful for your support in achieving this.

It is critical to ensure we protect health and care workers, patients and the public at a time when COVID-19 pressures across health and care continue. Thank you for your continued efforts.

Call for people aged 70 and over to contact the NHS for their COVID-19 vaccination  

We are now asking people aged 70 and over who have not yet been vaccinated against COVID-19, and who would like to be, to contact the NHS to arrange a jab. Until now the NHS has asked people to wait until they are contacted to help ensure that those who are most vulnerable are protected first - and that remains the case for most people. However, to ensure absolutely everyone is offered the vaccine, people aged 70 and over can now contact the NHS so they can be vaccinated by the middle of this month.

People in this group should book their vaccination through the National Booking Service which allows patients to choose a time slot and location that suits them. Anyone unable to book online can call 119 free of charge, anytime between 7am and 11pm seven days a week. GP teams have been asked to contact their clinically extremely vulnerable patients, who have been asked to shield, to ensure they have been offered the vaccine.

Kiren and Ned

COVID-19 updates and guidance

Your top tips for vaccination services

Local vaccination services were asked for their top tips on setting up and running vaccination services to help new sites as they have come on board. This poster highlights your top tips on vaccinating.

Vaccination record query helpdesk  
A new COVID-19 vaccination information web resource and helpdesk is being set up for practice managers to help find out answers to questions about records of vaccinations. Find out how COVID-19 vaccinations are recorded, how long it takes, common errors or difficulties and how to get help.

The National COVID-19 Vaccination procurement channel

Please be reminded that all new vaccination sites must be setup using the National COVID-19 Vaccination procurement channel. This applies to all vaccination sites: Hospital Hubs, Vaccination Centres and Local Vaccination Services sites. There are no exceptions to this rule and no sites should be attempting to procure items through alternative channels, such as NHS Supply Chain or Primary Care Support England (PCSE).

COVID-19 Vaccination Programme – workspace

Flu updates and guidance

Surplus DHSC centrally supplied flu vaccines 2020/21

Thank you for all you have done, and continue to do, on this season’s flu vaccination programme. As we come to the end of this season’s programme, you may find you have surplus stock available. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) guidance for accessing centrally supplied flu vaccines is clear that providers are unable to return unused centrally supplied stock. This is the case for all providers who have accessed centrally supplied stock, whether you are a GP practice, pharmacy or trust.

Where it looks likely that you will be left with excessive levels of central stock, please talk to your regional team, primary care network, or commissioner to see whether it can be redistributed elsewhere within your area. Please ensure that you still have sufficient supply to vaccinate eligible people who may yet come forward.

Flu vaccine reimbursement letter 2021/22

Professor Stephen Powis, National Medical Director, has written to flu vaccination providers providing guidance on reimbursement and ordering of flu vaccines for the 2021/22 season. The letter also provides an overview of uptake from the 2020/21 season.

Flu immunisation guidance for 2021/22 season published – community pharmacy

New guidance has been published providing information on the flu vaccines reimbursable under the 2021/22 Community Pharmacy Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Advanced Service (Flu Vaccination Service). Contractors are encouraged to review the JCVI advice for the 2021/22 season, published in November 2020 and order vaccines in line with reimbursement guidance.

Community pharmacies should plan their ordering for 2021/22 season on the basis of meeting at least the numbers of vaccinations they achieved during the 2020/21 season.

General practice

NHS Cervical Screening Programme – sample taking training guidelines and guidance for booking

It is essential that Public Health England’s (PHE) training guidelines are followed for new, existing and returning sample takers. New sample takers should not be taking samples without completing the initial training (three hours classroom or virtual) and not without supervision until sign off by the cervical screening mentor. Returners to Practice must contact the laboratory to check their pin/code number status and for any changes to the liquid-based cytology (LBC) system previously employed.

Sample takers must update the following skills for an absence of 12 months – five years (and over):

• complete the cervical screening update eLearning (if over 12 months)
• complete eLearning for health primary HPV screening for sample takers (if over 12 months)
• have two sample-taking sessions peer reviewed (if over 12 months – five sessions if over five years)

Experienced sample takers who meet national standards and fulfil their professional obligations for Continued Professional Development (CPD) can undertake peer review. Employers should manage any concerns raised in connection with meeting competency requirements. If you have any queries about sample taking training requirements, then please contact your regional NHS England and NHS Improvement Public Health Commissioning team.

Many practices continue to provide screening services, however, some complaints have been received from women who are unable to book their cervical screening appointment and have been advised by their GP practice to call back. In conjunction with PHE, the advice issued for providers of NHS Cervical Screening sample taking services is for primary care providers to continue to prioritise cervical screening appointments including both high risk and normal call/recall invitations to screening. 

Providers should ensure that cervical screening appointments are booked for all eligible women who request screening. Women must not be advised to contact the practice at a later date to arrange their appointment. If the provider is unable to deliver the scheduled screening appointment, then the appointment should be rescheduled rather than cancelled in order to avoid losing the individual from the system.

General practice – latest updates

Community pharmacy

Royal Pharmaceutical Society launches health and wellbeing campaign

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) is asking pharmacists to sign up to its campaign to help improve health and wellbeing in the workplace. RPS has built on the results of its latest annual survey on mental health and wellbeing to create three key campaign asks to advance its Workforce Wellbeing work focusing on:

• preventing the cause of wellbeing problems in the workplace;
• improving the workplace culture to support wellbeing; and
• accessing wellbeing support easily when needed.

RPS is asking pharmacists to back the campaign by:

• showing their support for the actions through a simple website click;
• joining a members’ Workforce Wellbeing action group to help shape future activity; and
• sharing examples of good practice in the workplace so others can learn from them.

Primary care

Supporting recruitment to primary care

Guidance and tools to support the planning for, recruiting and embedding new roles under the additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRS) are continuously being uploaded to a dedicated space on FutureNHS. This includes information about each of the roles, job descriptions and case studies.

It has recently been updated with guidance on alternative employment models and an example SLA, and support for PCNs on providing clinical supervision. If you are not a member of the workspace you can join by emailing P_C_N-manager@future.nhs.uk using an NHS or similar professional email address.

Advice on the complaints process

We are aware that due to the ongoing pressures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, some healthcare organisations are encountering significant pressure on staff time. FAQs have been produced for both providers and patients.

The Department of Health and Social Care has advised that the Local Authority Social Services and NHS Complaints Regulations 2009 have not been repealed or amended, and all healthcare organisations must continue to comply with them. However, they have agreed that in some settings, it may take longer to respond to a complaint and consider it permissible up until 30 April for this to go beyond the usually required six months. All healthcare organisations should opt to operate as usual regarding the management of complaints if they are able to do so.

Extension to the Shingles immunisation programme for those who missed vaccination during lockdown

Individuals become eligible for routine vaccination against shingles when they become 70 years of age, and all those aged up to and including 79 years are eligible to receive the vaccine until they become 80 years of age. Some individuals who were eligible for the shingles (catch-up) vaccination programme may have turned 80 years old during the pandemic and missed the opportunity to be vaccinated, either due to lockdown or because they were shielding at home.

This cohort is likely to be very small and can still be given shingles vaccine opportunistically unless contraindicated, up to 31 March 2021. This temporary extension applies only to those who missed shingles vaccination because they were shielding and who turned 80 years of age during that period. Payment for this should be at the same rate as other shingles vaccines and will be managed by local commissioners via a manual claims process. As this cohort will not be included in the Shingles Patient Group Direction (PGD), a Patient Specific Direction (PSD) should be used by practices for this specific cohort of patients.

How to enable successful innovation and adoption in health and social care

The Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have worked in partnership with providers and stakeholders to develop a set of 6 evidence-based principles to support providers to be more effective at adopting innovation. The report aims to provide clarity around the meaning of innovation and offer guidance on creating an environment where innovation can thrive. Primary care professionals are invited to review the full report and consider how the principles could support innovation capability and better patient outcomes in their area.

Primary care guidance updated

Our updated primary medical care policy and guidance manual (PGM) provides the context, information and tools to commission and manage primary medical care contracts, and incorporates previous guidance on patient registration.

Improving the management of Urinary Tract Infections

RightCare Urinary Tract Infection data packs can support the continued improvement of the management of UTIs. Register as a member to access the packs. Improving the management of Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) can improve patient outcomes by reducing the risk of empirical treatment failure which is associated with antibiotic resistance. Inappropriate antibiotic use can lead to the development of antibiotic resistant UTIs, and healthcare associated gram-negative blood stream infections.

Working together to improve patient care

This new briefing from the NHS Confederation’s Mental Health Network and PCN Network explores how patient care can be improved by better partnership working between PCNs and mental health providers. It showcases good practice from around the country, including case studies from Herefordshire and Worcestershire STP, The Bridge PCN in Milton Keynes and Leeds Student Medical Practice/The Light Surgery PCN. Key learning running across all three is the importance of relationships and joint working; common purpose; pooling funding and making use of local assets; and understanding your local area and the needs of your population.

Dates for your diary

Thursday 11 February, 5pm – 6pm. General Practice webinar with Kiren and Ned (with a COVID-19 vaccination programme update from Nikki and Ed). Please ensure you register to attend by 3pm on 11 February. You do not have to register again if you have booked for our previous GP webinars.

Wednesday 24 February, 1pm – 2pm. Development of digital solutions for home-based and care home management

Link of the day

Dentists are being looked after and supported with the #LookingAfterYouToo coaching service