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Primary Care Bulletin - this week's round-up
19 August 2021
Dear colleagues,
Guidance on staff and student self-isolation and return to work
The government’s requirements to self-isolate after a positive COVID-19 contact have changed from Monday 16 August. Our letter outlines how this change will impact staff and students working in the NHS.
This supersedes previous Public Health England (PHE) guidance and applies to all staff and students working in all facilities, settings and organisations delivering NHS care. PHE’s updated guidance can be found here.
Becton Dickinson Blood Specimen Collection Portfolio supply disruption
You will be aware that Becton Dickinson has alerted us to a shortage of products from their Blood Specimen Collection Portfolio. We have issued guidance on recommended actions to hospitals and GP practices. The guidance advises:
- only test for a clinical indication in patients and increase the testing interval for monitoring where it is clinically safe to do so
- review testing levels to ensure a reduction in non-clinically urgent testing.
- liaise with staff to agree essential testing priorities.
Sites are now reducing the number of tests undertaken in line with the guidance, and all organisations are reminded to enact it with immediate effect. The measures set out in this guidance seek to ensure that there is no disruption to urgent care, and services for patients are able to continue as clinically appropriate. Failure to enact this guidance could limit the availability of tests.
Raj and Ed
Raj Patel
Deputy Medical Director, NHS England and NHS Improvement
Ed Waller
Director for Primary Care, NHS England and NHS Improvement
COVID-19 updates
Vaccination of children and young people: FAQs
Last week we published a set of frequently asked questions relating to the vaccination of children and young people.
Letter to all GP practices regarding identification of eligible children and young people
On 13 August 2021, we wrote to all GP practices setting out what actions they must take to identify children and young people at risk of severe illness from COVID-19, and who are household contacts of immunosuppressed children and adults.
Search tools are now available in TPP/EMIS/Vision to support the identification of 12–15 year olds with specific underlying health conditions that put them at risk of severe COVID-19. Searches must be completed by 19 August so that eligible children and young people can be offered the opportunity to book an appointment by 23 August.
Updates to GP Covid Vaccine Dashboard
The GP Covid Vaccine Dashboard, introduced to help PCN-led vaccination sites and GP Practices to easily identify and contact patients who have not yet had their first or second doses, has now been live for a few weeks and NHS Digital is seeing a growing number of users. New features have already been released – including the addition of 16 and 17 year olds in line with the latest JCVI guidance. If you haven’t already accessed the dashboard, further information and support is available on FutureNHS.
National protocol for COVID-19 mRNA vaccine BNT162b2 (Pfizer/BioNTech) – updated
Public Health
England published the updated national protocol for the administration of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine BNT162b2 to individuals in accordance with the national COVID-19 vaccination programme.
Asymptomatic testing for COVID-19 for NHS staff and volunteers in vaccination sites
The way that NHS staff and volunteers access lateral flow device (LFD) tests has changed. LFD testing kits should be ordered through the government portal. The tests are free and will be delivered people’s home addresses within a few days.
Asymptomatic testing for COVID-19 is an important component of Infection Prevention and Control, which all organisations and staff have a duty to adhere to.
We are grateful for the continued efforts of staff and volunteers in keeping colleagues and patients safe from potential transmission of COVID-19 in healthcare settings.
A supporting LFD standard operating procedure for vaccination sites has been published and explains more about how and when to test using LFDs, and reporting the results. There are also frequently asked questions on LFD testing for primary care and for NHS trusts on NHS England and NHS Improvement website.
General practice
NHS Cervical Screening Programme - National Ceasing Audit
The Cervical Screening Administrative Service (CSAS) will be contacting GP practices over a three week period from 18 August 2021 to request action to support the NHS Cervical Screening Programme National Ceasing Audit, to ensure that no individuals have been inappropriately ceased from the programme. Practices will receive a list of their register patients who are recorded on the national cervical screening call and recall IT system since 1 April 2010 as:
- having no cervix and;
- have no record that a ceasing notification letter was sent to them when they were originally ceased.
Practices will be asked to review these patients’ records to confirm whether they have a cervix. An average practice will need to review 10 records. We are currently engaging with the BMA GP Committee with regards to making a one-off contribution payment in recognition of the workload impact of this request.
We appreciate how extremely busy you are at this time, but if you receive a request from CSAS please ensure that you respond by the date requested. If no response is received, all patients identified will be reinstated into the NHS Cervical Screening Programme.
Introduction of Shingrix for immunocompromised people into the routine NHS shingles programme
From 1 September 2021 a new shingles vaccine (Shingrix) will be available to anyone eligible for shingles vaccination but are immunocompromised so cannot receive Zostavax. In line with current requirements of the routine NHS shingles vaccination programme, practices should offer Shingrix to those becoming eligible at 70 years old, or opportunistically/if requested until the age of 80.
Shingrix requires a two-dose schedule, with the second dose administered from two months (up to six months) following the first dose. The vaccine will be available to order via ImmForm from mid-August 2021. To manage supplies, it’s important that Shingrix is given only to those who are immunocompromised. GPs should continue to offer Zostavax to immunocompetent patients who can receive it.
Where practices undertake searches for eligible patients, search criteria should be adjusted wherever possible to ensure those previously excluded due to contraindication to Zostavax due to being immunocompromised, are included for vaccination with Shingrix from September 2021.
Dentistry
Your NHS dentistry and oral health update – Wednesday 18 August 2021
The latest edition of the dentistry and oral health update from Sara Hurley and Ed Waller is now available, with guidance on staff and student self-isolation and return to work, vaccinations for staff entering care homes and much more.
Pharmacy
NHS CPCS IT systems: funding model extension and update on expansion of system suppliers
Since the launch of the Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) in October 2019, two assured CPCS IT solutions have been nationally procured to support community pharmacy contractors with the delivery of the service.
The national procurement model was extended to October 2021 amid pandemic pressures, and will be extended for a further six months until 1 April 2022 providing a benefit for contractors and funded by NHS England and NHS Improvement.
From April 2022 the approach will change, as the cost of CPCS IT solutions transfers directly to community pharmacy contractors.
From mid-November 2021, contractors will be able to transition to their own contractual arrangements with one of four assured IT providers:
- Cegedim
- PharmOutcomes
- Positive Solutions
- Sonar Informatics
A buyer’s guide will be made available to support contractors to make well-informed decisions when choosing an IT solution.
Primary care
Enhanced Health in Care Homes: primary care networks and community health webinar
Join Dr Ursula Montgomery, GP and Senior Clinical Advisor – Primary Care and Emily Henderson, Deputy Director of Primary Care Workforce, who will be hosting a webinar on 29 September 2021 for PCN clinical directors, general practice teams, community health teams and integrated care system leaders.
They will be joined by Dr Adrian Hayter, National Clinical Director for Older People and Integrated Person-Centred Care to talk about enhanced health in care homes. You will hear from PCN colleagues across the country bringing this PCN service specification to life and how it has benefitted patients on a local footprint.
There will be an opportunity to ask questions throughout the event and share feedback on how nationally and regionally NHS England and NHS Improvement can support you and your PCN. We hope to see you there.
Flexible access to NHS space with NHS Open Space
This month NHS Open Space, a service that enables flexible booking of NHS space, welcomed 47 new primary care sites onto their booking platform. Health, wellbeing, and community services can now choose from 950+ rooms across 150 sites nationwide with spaces ranging from examination rooms to offices, to group activity spaces.
This flexibility means that we can maximise use of NHS space so that patients can access a wider range of services from their local health hubs.
You can explore the new spaces here, and sign up to a platform demo session this month.
Join us for Pride in the NHS Week and NHS Virtual Pride
2020's Virtual Pride opened up more opportunities than ever for LGBT+ people to join in with the activism and celebrations and to connect with each other in new and exciting ways. We look forward to welcoming you at 10am on 6 September for the launch of Pride in the NHS Week 2021 and don’t miss the NHS Virtual Pride grand finale, on Friday 10 September from 4pm. Sign up for Pride in the NHS Week and NHS Virtual Pride.
Blogs, case studies and podcasts
Podcast on Prescription
A new ‘Podcast on Prescription’ from The National Academy for Social Prescribing shines a light on the power of social prescribing with a special guest each week, hosted by Dr Radha Modgil, GP, broadcaster, author and Social Prescribing Ambassador. To listen, search ‘Podcast on Prescription’ on your favourite podcast provider, or listen via their website.
Group consultations: Together, patients are stronger
This case study looks at how group consultations are a way primary care practices can bring together individuals for support with long-term conditions, helping them to better manage their own health and share their experiences and learning.
Key dates
- 31 August: deadline to update practice workforce data on NWRS
- 31 August: workforce planning submission deadline
Upcoming events and webinars
19 August, 6.30pm – 7.30pm. RCGP: How to undertake a quality improvement (QI) project for QOF
25 August, 12.30pm – 2pm. Peer Learning: Supporting migrant communities and people with refugee status
31 August, 2pm – 3.50pm. Higher Education Institution webinar
31 August, 6.30pm – 7.30pm. RCGP: QOF QI module for early cancer diagnosis
1 September, 1:30pm – 2:30pm. Social Prescribing Link Worker Webinar Series - Carers
2 September, 4pm – 5pm. The mental health digital playbook: how digital technology can help improve and transform our services
29 September, 5.30-7pm. Enhanced Health in Care Homes: primary care networks and community health
Link of the day
