COVID-19 Primary Care bulletin

30 March 2020

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

Dear primary care colleagues,

We hope you got the chance for some much needed rest over the weekend.

New NHS text service launched
A new service was launched on Saturday where new patients who register their Covid-19 symptoms and contact details with the 111 online service will receive daily texts from the NHS. The messages will check how people are and ensure that those who need help to get them through the isolation period receive it. The text messages will be sent as a reassurance to those who contact NHS 111 online, complete the assessment, and leave basic information such as their age, mobile number and when their symptoms started.  

Webinars
Thank you to everyone that has joined the range of primary care webinars we have set up.  You can find details here of upcoming webinars and we will continue to upload content from previous webinars in case you missed any.

Thank you again, take care and we will continue to keep you updated!

Nikki and Ed

General practice

A reminder that the latest general practice preparedness update was published on Saturday 28 March and included guidance on COVID-19 Primary Care Operating Model and on preparations for the bank holiday.

Right to work verification for returning doctors
Across the NHS we are working to get clinicians who wish to offer their support back into practice as quickly and as safely as possible. In order to return to work, individuals will need to complete identification and right to work verification. 

Whilst some returning GPs may choose to undertake verification online; others may visit their local practice in order to complete the process in person. We would like to ask for help from your practices in completing this verification.

If a returning GP asks your practice team to help them with verification, we would be very grateful if they could:

• Check the documents presented and satisfy themselves that they are consistent with the appearance of the individual.
• Take a photocopy or a scanned copy of each of the documents presented.
• Complete the identification checklist which can be found here along with further information about the process.
• Send scanned copies of the verified documents and the checklist to the GP’s employer at Covid19.CAS@nhs.net from your organisation’s NHS.net account, or another encrypted account if this is not possible.

We know that many practice teams are already exceptionally busy and we are very grateful for your help with this process, which we hope will not be an arduous one.

NHSmail for GP Locums
We have been working with the BMA, NASGP and NHS Digital to establish a process for GP Locums to register for an NHSmail account.  This means GP Locums who may be working across different sites can register for an NHSmail account, which they can continue to use across assignments and will not be fixed to a specific organisation.  For more information visit this webpage or complete the registration form here.

Identifying and supporting patients at highest clinical risk from Corona Virus
We have received a number of questions about this process and are producing an FAQ document which aims to answer as many of those queries as possible. In the meantime, the information below covers some of the key issues that most of you have raised with us:

•  All patient letters generated by the central process have now been distributed and should have been received via Royal Mail.
• In line with the letters from CMO and NHSE/I, all patients included in the CMO defined cohort that could be identified through centrally available data should have been flagged in practice IT systems.
• GPs should have received a report from their system supplier.  This report can be run locally on your practice IT systems – you will not receive separate notice about this.
• If your practice have not yet got your patient flags, or report, please contact your IT system supplier and let NHSE know immediately, via: England.covid-highestrisk@nhs.net  Please do not send any lists of patients or other patient identifiable data to this email address.
• We knew the data in the initial extract would not be complete due to the limitations of centrally available data.  This week, NHS Digital will update the original cohort and identify some additional patients based on GP data.  Any additional patients identified will be flagged in GP systems in the same way as the original cohort and practices will have an updated report in their system. 
• After this next update we would like practices to review the list for accuracy and identify any additional patients who meet the CMO’s original criteria but are not included amongst those identified.  We will provide further details  of how this should be done via GP system suppliers.
• As set out in the CMO letter, there may be other patients, not included in the original CMO cohort, that GPs consider to be in the highest risk category and who should be advised to shield. We expect this to be small numbers; shielding will only be effective if we focus these most stringent protective measures on those at the highest clinical risk.
• We will be in touch later this week to confirm a streamlined process for reviewing and updating your lists. We advise you wait for this before running any further searches.

Community pharmacy

Community Pharmacy Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)
The updated SOP was published on 22 March and can be found on the NHS England website.  

Additional information

NHS discounts
NHS England and NHS Improvement has published a list of verified offers/discounts for NHS staff so you can take advantage of them. It includes all offers that we have been able to confirm so far across supermarkets, food and transport. The list includes details of how to access the offers, and any terms and conditions to be aware of.

Dates for your diary

Nikki and Ed's Link of the Day

The BMA, Care Provide Alliance, CQC and RCGP have published a joint statement on advance care planning. The importance of having a personalised care plan in place, especially for older people, people who are frail or have other serious conditions has never been more important than it is now during the Covid 19 Pandemic. Read the Full statement