Primary Care Bulletin - this week's round-up

14 October 2021

Dear colleagues,

Supporting general practice and improving access for patients

General practice, along with the whole of the NHS, continues to experience enormous pressure. We are still coping with the additional demand and constraints of the pandemic and we recognise that workload pressures are intense.

The NHS is gearing up to face a very challenging winter, with access to general practice an essential part of winter plans. We need to ensure that general practice has the support, technology and time to deliver the right care for patients, in the right way and at the right time.

This document outlines a package of assistance developed with government and partner organisations. It includes practical steps to:

• Increase and optimise capacity in general practice.
• Address variation in patient access and encourage good practice.
• Improve communication with the public on how to best access general practice, and support on tackling abuse and violence against NHS staff.

Further details of the new £250m Winter Access Fund is outlined in this document.

Nikki and Ed

COVID-19 updates

COVID-19 Vaccination Programme – workspace

General practice

New Information Standard Notice (ISN) published for medicine data transfer

New standards have been issued for IT systems that provide electronic transfer of patient medication and allergy/intolerance data. Please ensure your systems are up to date with the new standards. IT systems used to send and receive medication and allergy/intolerance information must do so using either NHS Digital APIs or APIs created using the specifications.    

Where you identify non-compliant message transfers, please contact your IT supplier about developing new products or updating existing products. These requirements must be met by 31 March 2023, please refer to the Standard’s Requirements Specification. Any questions can be directed to: medicinestandards@nhs.net.  

Healthcare Support Workers (HCSW) Developing Professional Practice and Personal Leadership Skills Course

HCSWs play a key role in delivering excellent patient care within general practice, and therefore, developing and retaining those workers is key to developing a workforce that is capable of meeting the future needs of the NHS. With Education for Health, NHS England and NHS Improvement have developed a 12 week online learning course plus one Essentials Clinical Workshop (2 x 2 hour sessions).

Registration for cohort 2 closes at 5pm on 18 October (course starts 1 Nov) although future dates will be released quarterly. Please be aware that places are limited and are allocated on a first come, first served basis.  Visit FutureNHS for further information, including details on how to register.

NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme: Age extension information for GPs

From April 2021, NHSEI started the expansion of the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme with the inclusion of 56 year olds. This was the first phase of the gradual roll out to lower the screening starting age from 60 to 50, which will happen over the next four years.

To ensure that screening providers fully understand when each age cohort will roll out and which patients are eligible for invitations, hubs will send information sheets to all centres once they go live with age extension.

Clinical Safety Officer Training

NHSX is offering 66 nationally funded places for Clinical Safety Officers supporting General Practice, as part of locally commissioned GP IT Services on the remote Clinical Safety Officer Foundation Course. When completing your booking please utilise NHS.net email addresses only.  

General practice - latest updates

Dentistry

Your NHS dentistry and oral health update

Read the latest edition of the NHS dentistry and oral health update online.

Primary care

Complete your workforce planning template for 2022/23 and 2023/24

The workforce planning submission template is available on our website for PCNs to submit information about their workforce planning for 2022/23 and 2023/24. As per the 2021/22 Network contract DES, Primary Care Networks (PCNs) are required to submit this information by 31 October 2021. 
These submissions contribute to workforce planning all levels and it is important that all PCNs provide this information to help us shape how investment, training and resource is directed across primary care. Please ensure your template is completed and sent to your CCG by the deadline.

Further supporting guidance, including an FAQs and videos is also available on FutureNHS. If you have any questions, please email: england.primarycareworkforce@nhs.net.
 

Additional flu vaccine to support delivery of the seasonal flu vaccination programme

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has secured additional flu vaccine to support delivery of this year’s seasonal flu vaccination programme. This is a temporary measure to support reaching the uptake ambitions for this year’s expanded flu programme, with additional supply being deployed to areas where it is most needed to maximise uptake and top up local supplies where they run low.

Providers and local commissioners should ensure stock is prioritised to where it is needed most, in eligible cohorts where uptake is lower. DHSC has published guidance for General Practices and Community Pharmacies on how to access the stock and what vaccines are available.

A short course for a big health impact

Nearly half the adults in England (43%) struggle to read and understand health information. When that information includes words and numbers, that rises to 61%. This means important details, such as dosage and how to take medicines can be missed.

Health Education England has developed a free, 35 minute, online health literacy course, designed for anyone working with or supporting patients, families and carers. Sign up today for the online health literacy course on the NHS e-learning for healthcare platform. Find out more about improving Health Literacy.

Get involved

NHSX Survey: Digital transformation across the NHS and social care

NHSX would like your feedback on how you think they are doing to digitally transform the NHS and social care. They’d like to hear from you if you work in health technology and digital services across the NHS and social care, or are a leader or manager in clinical and non-clinical roles. The research is conducted independently and fully anonymous, it’s open until 18 October 2021.

Blogs, case studies and podcasts

Blog: Baby steps are adding up to deliver the world’s first net zero health service by 2045

One year on from becoming the world’s first health service to commit to reaching net zero carbon, the NHS in England is on track to reduce its emissions for the financial year – equivalent to powering 1.1 million homes with electricity.

NHS staff are making this happen with innovations across care delivery, medicines, transport and estates which are improving patient care today and reducing costs.

Climate change poses a major threat to health. Taking action to reduce harmful carbon emissions will save lives and improve health, now and for future generations. Read more about our progress in this Greener NHS blog.

Key dates

• 29 October 2021 – Deadline to sign up to the Enhanced Service for Long Covid
• 31 October 2021 – Deadline to submit workforce planning template for 2022/23 and 23/24

Upcoming events and webinars

14 and 21 October, 9.30am - 12pm. Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) 2021 webinars

19 October, 12.30pm – 2pm. How can we make better use of General Practice and NHS facilities to support social prescribing, holistic care and community resilience?

21 October, 11am - 12.15pm. Health Inequalities - Priority 5: Strengthening leadership and accountability

21 October, 5pm – 6pm. General Practice Webinar

27 October,1.30pm - 2.30pm. Learning from the RCGP, observatory on the role of social prescribing and health inequalities

28 October, 12pm - 2pm. Physician Associate Apprenticeship – Employer Engagement Webinar

4 November, 8am – 5pm. Primary care virtual conference

4 November, 7pm – 8pm. Post Covid Syndrome in children