COVID-19 Primary Care bulletin

22 May 2020

COVID-19: today's round-up for primary care

Dear colleagues,

Thank you to everyone who joined the webinar yesterday, we hope it was useful. As mentioned in the webinar, we are now moving to fortnightly for these webinars and the next one will take place on Thursday 3 June at 5pm. We will share further details in upcoming bulletins.

Last week NHS England and NHS Improvement came together with a range of leading thinkers from the disabled rights movement, voluntary sector organisations, and specialist clinical directors to discuss the importance of ensuring everyone has the opportunity for their needs, wishes and preferences to be considered. The meeting was co-chaired by Baroness Jane Campbell and James Sanderson, Director of Personalised Care for the NHS, who have issued a joint statement on personalised approaches to care and treatment.

We hope many of you will have a chance to get some rest over the bank holiday weekend, and thank you to those who are still providing some form of cover.

Nikki and Ed

General Practice

Patients being redirected to NHS 111

We have received reports that some unwell patients are being redirected to NHS 111 by their GP practice when calling for advice in hours. The GP Standard Operating Procedure will be amended to make it clear that this should not happen and if patients with symptoms of COVID-19 contact their GP practice, they should be assessed rather than directed to NHS 111. This is to prevent unwell patients deteriorating due to delays in accessing medical help.

Community pharmacy

A reminder to keep your NHS 111 Directory of Services Profile and your NHS website profile up to date

With more people using online services, it is important to keep your NHS website profile up to date. It is important that contractors update their DoS entry and that the pharmacy NHS website entry is correct for Monday 25 May. The step-by-step guide for updating your NHS Website profile is available. For temporary closures of more than 5 days please amend your opening times within the Dos Profile Updater, for temporary closures of less than 5 days please amend your RAG status to ‘RED’ using the DoS Capacity status tool which can be accessed from the login page on the DoS Profile Updater.

Royal Pharmaceutical Society summit on future of pharmacy

The RPS will bring organisations with a stake in pharmacy’s future together digitally on 9 June to set out a plan for the future for the profession. They invite everyone in pharmacy to complete a short survey describing the key areas where the RPS believe there may be either an opportunity for change to help fight Covid-19 or to improve patient care more generally. A series of virtual engagement events across digital platforms will follow the summit, to allow pharmacists to ask questions and comment on the way forward.

Dentistry

Stakeholder workshop update

Yesterday, NHS England and NHS Improvement, the Department of Health and Social Care and the Chief Dental Officer for England held their second stakeholder workshop with invited representatives of the profession, dental industry and regulators. The group confirmed the intent for a graduated risk based approach and the development of guidance and support ahead of any announcement of the reopening of high street dental practices. Access and availability of urgent dental care through the variety of hubs and hospital settings continues and the commitment of all dental teams in maintaining remote triage and advice as well as face to face care in UDC sites was commended.

Optometry

The most recent guidance letter for optical staff is available on our website.

Additional information

Health and wellbeing survey

We would like to understand the current wellbeing of the primary care workforce, and invite you to take part in a survey undertaken by the Institute for Employment Studies to support this. The survey will take no longer that five minutes to complete and will contribute to our ongoing response to support your wellbeing.

Dates for your diary 

Tuesday 26 May, 5-6pm - Update on Direct Booking into General Practice from NHS 111 & CCAS via GP connect. Presenters include Dr Phil Koczan, GP and Digital Clinical Champion and Michelle McDermott, GP Connect Lead

Wednesday 27 May, 1-2pm - Digital Nurse Network webinar 14. Presenters include Helen Crowther RN, Ann Gregory RN and CNIO for NHSX and Dr Natasha Phillips R.

Wednesday 27 May, 12.30-1:30pm - The PCN DES: discussion for the undecided. Presenters include Dr Richard Vautrey, Chair, BMA General Practice Committee (GPC), Dr Tayo Kufeji, GP and Clinical Director for The Bridge PCN, Ed Waller, Director for Primary Care Strategy and NHS Contracts, NHS E & NHS I, Dr Josephine Sauvage, Chair, NHS Islington CCG.

Nikki and Ed's link of the day

First You - a hand-picked collection of wellbeing resources for healthcare workers