3 December 2020

Dear colleagues,

Following the approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, doses will be available from next week to administer to the priority list of patients and staff. This is a vital first step in the vaccination programme. We now need all parts of the system to be ready to support the rapid vaccine rollout. Further information for primary care will follow as soon as it is available.

COVID Oximetry@home updated resources

In November CCGs were advised to set up COVID Oximetry @home services as rapidly as possible. This was one of the seven priority goals for the additional £150m General Practice COVID Capacity Expansion Fund. The recommended model is based on patient self-monitoring for people most at risk of becoming seriously unwell and is set out in the COVID Oximetry @home standard operating procedure.  Guidance on the use of pulse oximetry was published in June and additional resources to support the set-up of Oximetry@home have been expanded to include translated materials and a video for patients.

CCGs can continue to request pulse oximeters by emailing england.home@nhs.net. PCNs should contact their CCG if there is an urgent requirement that their CCG is not already aware of.  General practices should also  consider whether they have sufficient oximeters to take account of potential minor delays in distribution over the holiday period.

Accessing your GP animation – public messaging

To support general practice, we have created an animation to help explain to the public how they can continue to access GP services, including how to get in contact, the different ways care may be delivered, and how face-to-face appointments have changed. Please share the video on your websites and social media as appropriate to ensure patients receive the care they need as safely as possible. The Royal College of General Practitioners has published helpful new guidance to support clinicians when choosing between online, video, telephone and face-to-face consultations with patients during the pandemic: Remote versus face to face consultations – which to use and when?.

Raj and Ali

COVID-19 updates and guidance

Appointment Booking for COVID Vaccination

Vaccination Hubs and practices will need to configure clinical systems to allow appointment sharing for patient vaccination. GP Connect are running some Webinars to help you get set up. Hubs should register for a webinar and choose a session for matches the GP clinical system you need to configure. Practices who need to book appointments into hubs should register using a different link.

COVID-19: the Green Book provisional guidance

The Green Book has the latest information on vaccines and vaccination procedures, for vaccine preventable infectious diseases in the UK. Public Health England has provisionally published the Green Book, chapter 14a.This chapter includes information on the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines, the dosage and schedule for the UK, recommendations for the use of the vaccine. This guidance is provisional subject to Medicines and Healthcare produces Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approval of vaccine supply.

DHSC Covid-19 related PPE Portal – update re: Christmas orders and delivery

The DHSC PPE Portal will be operational over Christmas. The portal delivery partners (Royal Mail and their Pallet Carrier) will not be delivering on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Orders made during this time should still be delivered within 5 days. However, the portal team plan to increase order limits prior to Christmas to allow providers to order more PPE in case there are any delays to deliveries over the Christmas period. The DHSC portal team have created a useful video guide for primary care providers ordering Covid-19 related PPE from the portal.

COVID-19 Vaccination Programme – workspace

Primary care

Updated documents on expansion of flu programme

A suite of documents has been updated and published on the gov.uk website to support you in delivering the flu programme for the 2020/21 season. These are:

• Guidance - Childhood flu programme: information for healthcare practitioners
• Guidance - Inactivated influenza vaccine: information for healthcare practitioners
• Flu vaccination: information about the extended programme – including public flyer
• Influenza vaccines for the 2020 to 2021 season – including ovalbumin content
• Statement on amendments to the annual flu letter 2020/21 season and summary table of which influenza vaccines to offer
• Campaign materials for the extended 2020 to 2021 flu vaccination programme for 50-64 year olds – including new marketing assets for this age group

 Childcare support for NHS colleagues through the school holidays and beyond

This year has been extraordinarily difficult for people working across the NHS, and if you’re a parent or carer with childcare responsibilities, your work, life and family balance can be hard to achieve. As we come up to the school holidays, we wanted to make sure you’re aware of the support which is available to you as NHS staff.

Cityparents: Cityparents’ programme offers expertise and support to help you balance work with family life, including podcasts, as well as support groups and webinars.

Place2Be: Place2Be’s programme offers arts & craft resources and supportive webinar recordings to help keyworker parents, carers and their families during COVID-19.

PACEY: The Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years provide practical and impartial support and information for families and carers and those advising them. They are welcoming all queries and offering support for keyworkers and their families.

Community pharmacy

GPhC announces dates for its registration assessment exam for provisionally registered pharmacists

The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has announced dates for the registration assessment exam for those who were provisionally registered as pharmacists in July 2020, due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The assessments will take place online on 17 and 18 March at approved test centres. Candidates can apply to sit the assessment through their GPhC accounts. GPhC is creating a new assessment web page on its’ main site, which will include FAQs, details of a forthcoming webinar and practical information about the assessment and the application process, which opens in January.

Dates for your diary

Thursday 10 December, 10.30am - 11.30am. NHS Volunteer Responder programme update webinar

PCPA National Conferences sessions on GP referral pathway to Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS). Sessions on the new GP referral pathway to CPCS at both PCPA South and North regional conferences are taking place as part of the Digital Frontier workshops.

• Thursday 3 December, 12.40pm - 4.40pm (South)
• Wednesday 9 December, 12.40pm - 4.40pm (North)

Friday 11 December, 2pm – 3pm. GatewayC webinar: Diagnosing Ovarian Cancer

Link of the day

The benefits of apprenticeships – and dispelling the myths