COVID-19 Primary Care bulletin

7 May 2020

COVID-19: today's round-up for primary care

Dear colleagues,

Yesterday I (Nikki) appeared on the daily government press briefing to share my thanks and pay a tribute to all colleagues across primary care who have been working hard, be that in a different way, to deliver care for patients and help keep everyone safe during the pandemic. I also reiterated to the public that we are open, available and ready to help, including over the coming bank holiday. Thank you for making this possible.

We hope many of you will join us for our regular general practice webinar this evening from 5pm, or our community pharmacy webinar at 7pm. Please continue to send in your questions and best practice examples through our online form.

Nikki and Ed

General practice

An update on Shielding Patients for Primary Care

The latest update of the Shielded Patient List has identified a small number of patients who will be advised to shield via a centrally generated letter and text message. Flags will be added to the GP records for these patients along with patients identified by hospital clinicians this week. The addition of flags and distribution of central letters started on Tuesday 5 May. You may also receive information relating to this from your system supplier.

Any patients you locally identified as clinically extremely vulnerable prior to 28 April should now be recognised by the Government support website. If you have not done so, please ensure that you write to these patients as soon as possible, using the updated standard NHS letter, which you should have received via email as a Word document. The Government is currently advising people who are clinically extremely vulnerable to shield until 30 June, subject to ongoing review. Thank you for your support.

Direct booking into primary care from NHS 111 and CCAS via GP Connect

Following the webinar which was held on 5 May, you can now access the guidance, slides and recording of the webinar by signing up to the Digital Primary Care workspace on the Future NHS platform. Anyone who signed up to the webinar will receive an invitation to the workspace via email. 

Community pharmacy

NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service

During the pandemic the NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) has continued to be delivered within community pharmacy. We recognise this has been a valuable service for patients providing access to remote consultation for acute minor illness and urgent medicines supply. It is vitally important, that even during these busy periods, incoming CPCS referrals are checked for regularly throughout the day and at least an hour before closing. Some referrals may be made to the pharmacy overnight and so it is also good practice to check for these at the start of the working day. We are aware some pharmacies have been sending referrals back to NHS111 at the end of the working day stating that they had been unable to make contact with patients. If no contact can be made then the referral can be closed on the CPCS IT system as set out in the NHS CPCS Toolkit and not sent back to NHS111.

NHS Service Finder supports hospital pharmacy departments to discharge patients during the COVID-19 crisis

Hospital pharmacists will be able to use NHS Service Finder to instantly access up-to-date information on community pharmacies, including NHS email addresses. Electronic notes can now be sent on discharge to the relevant community pharmacy using secure NHS email. The development comes in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, to support the safe and timely discharge of patients and enable effective communication between hospital and community pharmacists. NHS Service Finder gives access to accurate, real-time information to help signpost patients to available services to best meet their needs. It can be used by healthcare professionals to access the NHS 111 Directory of Services and NHS.UK service information on any device.

Community pharmacy webinar – 7 May

A reminder that our next community pharmacy webinar with Keith Ridge and Ed Waller will take place this evening from 7pm – 8pm. Please click here to join.

Dentistry

Urgent Dental Care Practice Setup Example

Health Education England, Yorkshire and Humber have created an informative and practical video which describes the patient care pathway and practice setup for Urgent Dental Care in Yorkshire and Humber during COVID 19. It shares examples of good practice following current guidance and may be of use for those in UDCs elsewhere in England.

Optometry

The most recent guidance letter for optical staff is available on our website.

Additional information

Verification of death in a period of emergency

This guidance is designed to clarify existing practice for the verification of death outside of hospitals and to provide a framework for safe verification of death in this coronavirus emergency period. It is to be applied in all cases outside hospital when verification of death may be completed by people who have been trained to do so in line with their employer's policies.

Primary care wellbeing survey

We would like to understand the current wellbeing of the primary care workforce, and invite you to take part in a short survey undertaken by the Institute for Employment Studies to support this and to support the wider evaluation of the #lookingafteryoutoo primary care coaching offer. The survey will take no longer that five minutes to complete and will contribute to our ongoing response to support your wellbeing.

Dates for your diary 

Upcoming webinars

• 7 May, 12.30–1.30pm: NHSCC and PCN Network joint webinar – Coordinating in a crisis: A focus on primary care
• 7 May, 5-6.30pm: General practice webinar with Nikki Kanani and Ed Waller including a Q&A session
• 7 May, 7-8pm: Community Pharmacy webinar with Keith Ridge and Ed Waller (new date)

​To catch up on previous webinars visit Future NHS. 

Nikki and Ed's Link of the Day

Blog: What do you want to keep from this time? Lessons for the NHS – don’t let the ‘old world bite back*’