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Primary Care Bulletin - today's round-up
11 February 2021
Dear colleagues,
Thank you for your ongoing efforts to ensure that everyone in JCVI cohorts 1-4 is offered a vaccination by 15 February. Please continue to do everything possible to minimise any inequalities in vaccine uptake working with CCG, local authority and community partners.
Self-referral for social care worker vaccination
To support healthcare workers and community based social care workers in priority group 2 to receive their Covid-19 vaccination, they have the option to book their vaccination appointments in a vaccination centre or community pharmacy through the NHS Covid-19 Vaccination Booking Service. Staff can book online at www.nhs.uk/covid-vaccination. Staff should try online booking first but if this is not possible, they can phone 119 free of charge, 7am to 11pm, 7 days a week. As part of the booking process, eligible staff need to self-declare they are a health or social care worker. Staff will be able to book this way for a limited period, until 28 February. Further information is available in the letter published today.
Accessing general practice comms toolkit
We know it can be difficult for individual practices to communicate with the public about access to GP services while also running the vaccination programme. We have updated our access toolkit with key messages and draft text for you to share on your channels to make this clearer.
Kiren and Ned
Dr Kiren Collison
GP and Deputy Medical Director for Primary Care, NHS England and NHS Improvement
Ned Naylor
Director of Primary Care Provider Transformation, NHS England and NHS Improvement
COVID-19 updates and guidance
Increasing uptake of vaccinations for vulnerable groups of people
The Health Inequalities standing group of the Royal College of General Practitioners is undertaking a project on increasing the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine amongst vulnerable groups of patients affected by health inequalities, due to socioeconomic reasons. They are looking for examples of interventions by GPs/PCNs, health and social care teams, as well as by the voluntary sector and local communities, aiming to increase such vaccination uptake. If you would like to provide local examples so that they can be included in their report, please complete this form.
Reminder to use Long COVID SNOMED CT codes
An initial set of SNOMED CT codes to support the management of the long term effects of COVID-19 were recently made available. Knowledge about Long COVID is currently limited and evolving; therefore, it is important that we increase the use of these codes where appropriate so that further insight can be gained.
The codes correspond to diagnostic categories, referral and signposting, assessment instruments and outcome measures, and community care and self care options. Further guidance on the management of the long-term effects of COVID-19 is available from both NICE, NHS England and NHS Improvement.
General practice
A temporary diabetes helpline has been launched in response to disruption to normal diabetes services due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The NHS Diabetes Advice helpline is intended to be available until mid-March 2021 (continued provision after this date will be reviewed based on service pressures and ongoing need for the helpline) and is for adults living with diabetes who use insulin to manage their condition and require clinical advice. Where routine care has been disrupted, the helpline is available for clinical advice to help patients understand how to effectively manage their diabetes.
Patients registered with practices experiencing service pressures will be contacted to direct them to the helpline. GP colleagues are asked to make patients aware of this service and advise them to use it if they are unable to get in touch with their routine care team as quickly as usual.
Patients can access NHS Diabetes Advice helpline on 0345 123 2399 Monday-Friday from 9am-6pm.
Flash Glucose Monitoring for people with learning disabilities living with diabetes
The NHS Long Term Plan committed to ensuring people living with a learning disability and Type 1 diabetes benefit from life changing Flash Glucose Monitors (Flash), this initiative was rolled out via CCGs in 2019. However, as many people who have both a learning disability and diabetes have Type 2, the offer has been extended to include those living with Type 2 who use insulin to manage their condition. Where there is opportunity, Practices can begin to identify eligible patients and offer them access to Flash Glucose Monitoring. The process for prescribing Flash is already established across the country, Practices should follow their local referral procedure. Additional funding has been identified to support the programme until 31 March 2021, at which point responsibility for Flash will revert to CCGs.
Primary care
National Apprenticeship Week – roles in Primary Care
To support National Apprenticeship Week 2021 (#NAW2021), we want to promote the many apprenticeship roles available within primary care. Please take this week as an opportunity to highlight apprenticeship roles within your specialty, details of which are available by searching ‘apprenticeships’ on the Health Education England or Skills for Health website. Please do promote these roles within your teams and on your social media channels.
Reducing health inequalities in primary care networks
NHS England and NHS Improvement supported The Health Creation Alliance to explore through a series of workshops how PCNs can take action to address health inequalities and build health creating partnerships with people and communities. This report highlights the actions that can be taken and approaches that can support health creation through effective PCN partnerships.
Updates to Polypharmacy comparator tool now available
An update to the Polypharmacy Prescribing Comparators have been published on the NHS Business Service Authority website. The Polypharmacy prescribing comparators can help PCNs, GPs, CCGs and others to identify patients deemed to be at-risk who take multiple medicines and may require a structured medication review.
This update has new additional functionality for searching age bands. The first set of national polypharmacy comparators in England were published in June 2017 by the Academic Health Science Network and NHS Digital. In addition to the volume and previous therapeutic comparators, the updated tool will help to identify:
- Patients concurrently prescribed multiple analgesic medicines;
- Patients prescribed SSRIs/SNRIs and medicines known to increase the risk of bleeding; and
- Patients prescribed two, three or four or more medicines that can have an unwanted hypotensive effect.
DHSC survey on PPE supplies
DHSC is seeking views from those who purchase personal protective equipment (PPE) which is in addition to the PPE which they are obtaining free of charge from the DHSC PPE portal. This will help the portal team to understand what PPE needs are not being met through the current PPE delivery arrangements. The short survey is open until Sunday 14 February and takes just a couple of minutes to complete.
Dates for your diary
Wednesday 24 February, 1pm – 2pm. Development of digital solutions for home-based and care home management
Wednesday 24 February, 1.30pm – 3pm. New advancements in technology and pathway redesign, within Teledermatology: Part 3/3 Webinar Series
During this webinar there will be presentations delivered by subject matter experts in the clinical, technical and operational elements of implementation. We will be sharing best practice examples that will address some of the considerations and advancements in using new technology and pathways, within Teledermatology.
Link of the day
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