27 November 2020

Dear colleagues,

We have had a fantastic response from Primary Care Networks to become COVID-19 vaccination sites and we cannot thank you enough. You should now have been contacted to confirm your PCN as a vaccination site. We shared an update on the vaccination programme in yesterday’s GP webinar, and we expect to have further information for general practice and community pharmacy next week.

We appreciate there is a lot to consider and still some unknowns and we will continue to update you through this bulletin, regular webinars and the Future NHS platform which has links to all the latest information including a communications toolkit.

To help ensure that the NHS can deliver a large-scale vaccination programme without significantly impacting on other vital services, we are recruiting now to thousands of roles, including vaccinators, while also working with partners to build a bank of volunteers who can support vaccine services. Visit the vaccination recruitment webpage to find out how you can get involved and please do share this with friends and colleagues who may not currently be in clinical practice but are keen to help vaccinate.

Thank you again for your commitment to supporting such a critical vaccination programme. We know what an enormous challenge this will be, but we have every faith in the primary care community’s ability to deliver.

Raj and Ali

COVID-19 updates and guidance

Local restriction tiers: Updated advice for people who are Clinically Extremely Vulnerable

From Wednesday 2 December, the government will replace the current national restrictions with a regionally differentiated approach, where different tiers of restrictions apply in different parts of the country.  The government has provided specific guidance for clinically extremely vulnerable people at each local tier. The government is planning to communicate this updated guidance with all c.2.3m people on the Shielded Patient List (SPL) via letter. We expect this letter to be published on Saturday 28 November on the GOV.UK website. Letters may start arriving with patients from Saturday 28 November, and throughout all of next week (w/c 30 November). People for whom the NHS holds an email address will also receive an email copy of the letter on Monday 30 November.  We know this communication may generate queries to general practices. Thank you for continuing to support those at highest risk from COVID-19 at this time.

COVID-19 vaccine prioritisation videos

Public Health England have produced two videos of Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) Chair Wei Shen explaining the vaccine prioritisation and the rationale for the age-based approach. The videos can be found on the Public Health England twitter page.

Your COVID Recovery – Information for primary care

Your COVID Recovery is an interactive web-based programme developed to support the recovery of individuals recovering from COVID-19 irrespective of whether they were admitted to hospital.

There are 2 parts to the programme; an open, publicly available website that GPs can signpost patients to, and an online rehabilitation programme that requires a patient assessment similar to that required for ‘usual’ rehabilitation. Patients may be referred by their GP to the local service trained to navigate the platform and support patients to use it.      

Each region has an identified lead for long COVID services and a list of regional leads and further information on the referral process is available on the Primary Care Future NHS site.

Rehabilitation services may access the training for YCR via yourcovidrecovery@uhl-tr.nhs.uk and should also co-ordinate with the regional lead.

General practice 

GP practice staff absent from work due to COVID-19, suspected COVID-19 or shielding

We encourage practices to pay full pay to any GP practice staff who are absent from work with COVID-19, suspected COVID-19 (self-isolating) or who are clinically extremely vulnerable and are therefore unable to come into the workplace and see patients face to face (shielding). 

Where it is appropriate, for example if shielding, self-isolating or well enough to do so, GP Practice staff should be encouraged and supported to work remotely where possible, in light of the home working solutions that NHS England & NHS Improvement has facilitated. Where GP practice staff are absent due to COVID-19, suspected COVID-19 (self-isolating) or shielding and are unable to work from home, practices are strongly encouraged to continue to pay staff full pay.

NHS England & NHS Improvement has announced £150m of additional funding to practices via the General Practice Covid Capacity Expansion Fund, available until March 2021, to support additional capacity in general practice and to deliver seven priority areas, as set out in the letter published on 9 November 2020.One of these areas is provision of funding for backfill for staff absences, where it is agreed by the CCG, required to meet demand, and the individual is not able to work remotely.

Flu vaccination for 2 and 3 year olds

We would like to remind practices that as set out in the Enhanced Service Specification: Childhood seasonal influenza vaccination programme 2020/21, vaccination should be offered by GP practices to all children aged 2 and 3 years on 31 August 2020.

Children aged 4 years old on 31 August 2020 are eligible for flu vaccination via the school age immunisation service. We ask practices who are contacted by parents/guardians of children in this cohort who are rising to 5 years and not yet in full time school, to signpost the family to the school age immunisation service commissioned in their local area to arrange vaccination.

General practice - latest updates

Primary care

New GP referral pathway to NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service for minor illness available across England

GP practices across England can now refer patients with minor illness symptoms, for a same day consultation with a community pharmacist, using a new referral pathway to the NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS).

This greater use of pharmacists’ expertise will enable patients to be seen quickly and at a time convenient to them, increasing capacity within general practice for the treatment of patients with higher acuity needs. The pathway has been introduced following successful pilots around the country, which shows it be very popular with patients. 

Further information and resources for PCNs and practice teams about the GP referral pathway is available on the FutureNHS platform.

Making a difference for people experiencing health inequalities and living with frailty

Dr Bola Owolabi, National Specialty Advisor for Older People and Integrated Person-Centred Care at NHS England and NHS Improvement, and Sarah Mann, Director of Friends, Families and Travellers have co-written a blog, reflecting on communities experiencing premature frailty, avoidable health inequalities and how health and care providers can develop accessible services.

Community pharmacy

Community Pharmacy COVID 19 Test Kit Distribution Service pilot in Bradford

NHS England and Improvement are working with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Community Pharmacy West Yorkshire (CPWY) on the NHS Community Pharmacy COVID 19 Test Kit Distribution Service pilot within the Bradford area. The aim of the service is to improve local access to testing by making test kits readily available at community pharmacies across an identified area. 

The opt-in service will make COVID 19 swab testing available for collection by non symptomatic people from outside the household on behalf of those patients that are experiencing symptoms and self-isolating. A letter was sent this week to community pharmacy contractors in Bradford with further details of how the service will be available in their area during all pharmacy contracted hours between December 2020 to February 2021. If you are a pharmacy in Bradford and have any queries then please contact england.wyat-phes@nhs.net.

Kickstart scheme to recruit young people into community pharmacy

The National Pharmacy Association is supporting the Government Kickstart Scheme which funds the direct creation of high-quality jobs for young people who are on Universal Credit and deemed to be at the highest risk of long-term unemployment. The scheme will allow community pharmacies to provide new six-month job placements for young people funded by the government. To take part in the Kickstart scheme, apply by completing the enquiry form by 30 November 2020. Information on the scheme and how a placement can benefit your pharmacy is available on the NPA website.

Dates for your diary

Wednesday 2 December, 1pm – 2pm. Digital Nurse Network Webinar

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

Link of the day

NHS North Lincolnshire CCG named regional winner in NHS Parliamentary Awards