15 December 2020

Dear colleagues,

Lateral flow antigen testing in primary care

Lateral flow antigen testing will now be rolled out to asymptomatic patient-facing staff delivering NHS services across all four primary care contractor groups (Medical, Dental, Optometry, and Community Pharmacy) in England.

Lateral flow antigen testing, in conjunction with PCR testing, aims to reduce further transmission and enhance the resilience of NHS services, by improving virus detection.

Patient-facing staff will be asked to test twice-weekly using self-administered nasal swabbing and report their results through an online platform. Any positive lateral flow antigen tests will need to be followed up by a confirmatory PCR test.

A letter will be sent to all primary care contractors later this week with further information on how to order and receive deliveries of lateral flow antigen testing kits for staff. Dedicated SOPs and FAQs for primary care will also be published this week.

Primary care contractors will, during a window beginning from w/c 14 December, receive an invitation to order lateral flow testing devices directly from Primary Care Services England (PCSE), who will be managing the ordering and delivery process

Following receipt of an invitation, organisations should log on and complete their order as quickly as possible. The final closing date for orders across all contractors will be Wednesday 30 December.

Vaccination sites will be provided with separate deliveries of lateral flow testing devices for vaccinator staff. No separate ordering is necessary for those staff, although the vaccination site should order for other patient-facing staff if required.

COVID-19 vaccine programme in primary care

Hundreds of primary care networks across the country have now started to receive their COVID-19 vaccines and have begun the monumental task of vaccinating priority groups.

We want to say a massive thank you to all our colleagues across primary care who have made this happen and played their part. We know it hasn’t been easy and that you have given up so much time to ensure we are ready to roll-out the vaccination programme as quickly as possible. You have all gone above and beyond to make this happen and even though there is still some way to go we know we can do this, together.

Don’t forget our next GP webinar is this Thursday 17 December at 5pm. We will be sharing the latest updates across general practice, and Nikki Kanani and Ed Waller will be discussing the next steps in the vaccination programme. Please register before 3pm on the day – if you have registered previously, you don’t need to again.

Stay safe.

Raj and Ali

COVID-19 updates and guidance

COVID-19 local vaccination services deployment in community settings

This guidance applies to all providers who have been contracted to provide local vaccination services in community settings including at NHS sites (GP Practices, Community Pharmacies), non-NHS sites, care homes, and patients’ own homes. All NHS and non-NHS sites providing vaccination will have been ‘designated’ via a Commissioner-led site assessment process.

Some aspects of this document may only be appropriate to certain types of site and where clear that is indicated. However, we trust healthcare professionals to use their clinical judgement when applying this guidance in what we appreciate is a highly challenging, rapidly changing environment.

Accessing extra workforce for COVID-19 vaccination 

There is a workforce support offer available to all COVID-19 vaccination centres. Each Integrated Care System (ICS) has a designated Workforce Lead Provider which will act as a workforce hub for the all vaccination providers in the local area.  They can provide both health care professionals for employment such as returners to professional lists and volunteers such as St John’s Ambulance staff.

The Lead Provider will work with all providers on workforce communications, reporting, workforce planning and gap analysis, management of rostering systems for volunteers and National Workforce suppliers and will have oversight of mandatory and statutory training of these staff. A list of the Workforce Lead Providers for each ICS area is available here. You will need to sign up to FutureNHS to access this if you don’t already have an account.

COVID-19 Vaccination Programme – workspace

Flu updates

Flu vaccination for those in at-risk groups

We wrote at the end of November to those whose health records indicate they are eligible for vaccination due to a clinical condition to remind them to book an appointment.

While the influenza uptake for those in at-risk groups is higher than the last two seasons and comparable to the season before that (2017/18), we are now contacting those individuals that have not yet taken the opportunity to have their vaccination so that we can increase understanding of the reasons why and to encourage uptake. As a result, some individuals may receive a call from the number 0300 561 0230 and will be announced as the NHS Immunisation Management Service.

General practice

Developing rapid outreach this winter for people with Severe Mental Illness

People with Severe Mental Illness (SMI) face reduced life expectancy when compared with the general population. We also know that people with SMI may not respond to traditional methods of engaging with the NHS and that tailored outreach approaches could be more effective. Therefore £4.4M has been awarded nationally on a fair-shares basis to each STP to establish rapid outreach and engagement activity with people with SMI and their carers.

This outreach aims to increase uptake of flu vaccines and comprehensive physical health checks for people with SMI this winter. The outreach will be led by mental health services in partnership with the VCS sector, where appropriate. To complement this offer, we have worked with our third sector partners to develop two communications toolkits to support increased uptake of flu vaccines in people with SMI. They are designed for service users and carers, as well as colleagues working in general practice.

STPs will be supported by a national support offer, which will include a series of webinars and a ‘community of practice’, led by Equally Well. On Friday 4 December, Equally Well hosted the first in a series of webinars for SMI outreach on flu vaccinations and PHSMI. A recording of this webinar is available here. If you would like more information about this programme, please contact Beth McGeever at b.mcgeever@nhs.net.

General practice – latest updates ​

Primary care

Innovative new learning programme launched to develop and embed Shared Decision-Making Skills for pharmacists

NHS pharmacists working in patient facing roles in PCNs, general practice and care homes are encouraged to apply for a new programme to improve their clinical consultation skills.

The Centre for Postgraduate Pharmacy Education’s Shared Decision-Making learning programme equips pharmacists with the skills and techniques to embed shared decision making into their consultations (e.g. when undertaking Structured Medication Reviews).

Shared decision making is linked to improved outcomes for patients and puts patients at the centre of their own care. 2450 places are available and to be eligible, applicants must be working for at least two days (15 hours) per week in their primary care roles. See here for details.

New initial education and training standards for pharmacists announced

The General Pharmaceutical Council has approved new standards for the initial education and training of pharmacists.

The standards set out the knowledge, skills, understanding and professional behaviours a student/trainee pharmacist must demonstrate to pass their initial education and training and to join the professional register, as well as the requirements for organisations providing initial education and training.

Key changes include enabling pharmacists to independently prescribe from the point of registration, new learning outcomes used to assess the full five years of education and training and the application of science in clinical practice.

Quickly signpost patients with NHS Service Finder

Health and social care teams can now use NHS Service Finder to access accurate information about local services when signposting patients or identifying how to make referrals. You can search by keyword and location, helping you to direct patients to a service that best meets their needs. Services listed include community pharmacies, mental health services and urgent treatment centres.

Registration is quick and easy, and open to anyone working in health or social care. Register with your NHSmail email address for immediate access from your computer, smartphone or tablet. For more information, visit the NHS Digital website or email service.finder@nhs.net.

Culturally diverse and all staff virtual common rooms

This is an opportunity for our NHS people to come together virtually and to invest some time in supporting each other during these challenging times. Open to anyone, though specifically catering to the needs of our NHS staff from BAME communities and all staff working within the NHS across England. This is regardless of job role, organisational context or hierarchy and includes all final year students who have been working on the COVID-19 pandemic. The common rooms are a safe and supportive environment hosted by an experienced and approved practitioner.

Send in your festive pictures or videos

Remember to send in pictures or videos of your teams by 16 December for a chance to be included in our special festive video later in the month. We want to say thank you and to celebrate all your hard work and achievements. Please send to england.primarycare-covidcomms@nhs.net. We can’t wait to see them!

Dates for your diary

Wednesday 16 December 2020, 1:30pm -2:30pm. Webinar for Social Prescribing Link Workers on Combating Social Isolation through Creative Community Engagement

Thursday 17 December 2020, 5pm – 6pm. General Practice Webinar with Ali and Raj. Please ensure you register to attend by 3pm on 17 December. You do not have to register again if you have booked for our previous GP webinars.

Working with people and communities in PCNs webinars

Our webinar series for colleagues working in primary care networks continues next month, helping PCNs to provide inclusive services for people and communities from the most marginalised groups, who experience the greatest health inequalities. They include:

• Wednesday 6 January 2021, 1pm - 2pm. ‘Reaching out to communities at speed’ – Elliot Hall Practice Heroes project during COVID-19
• Wednesday 13 January 2021 12pm - 1pm. ‘A masterclass on conducting telephone surveys’
• Tuesday 26 January 2021 12pm - 1pm. ‘A masterclass on surveys’

Wednesday, 13 January 2021. 2pm - 3.30pm. Common Challenges and Proven Solutions for Teledermatology: (Part 2/3)

Link of the day

Demonstrating the power of place