No images? Click here
Primary Care Bulletin - today's round-up
3 June 2021
Dear colleagues,
GP CPCS: General Practice and Community Pharmacy Working Together
The NHS Community Pharmacy Consultation Service (CPCS) is a community pharmacist led clinical service which has been managing referrals from NHS111 since 2019. GP practices can also refer patients contacting them with minor illness symptoms for a same day consultation with a community pharmacist, using the referral pathway to the CPCS.
Catch up on this webinar hosted by the Royal College of General Practitioners, featuring an expert panel of speakers with a discussion on how the CPCS works and how it supports general practice. You can also access the CPCS FutureNHS workspace to find support with implementing the referral pathway.
Primary Care Networks webinar
Our next webinar for Primary Care Networks is taking place on Wednesday 23 June and will focus on multi-disciplinary teams with colleagues joining us from around the country to share their experience of working together as a team and the benefits to local populations. We will also look at ways to accommodate your new workforce, making full use of your estate. We hope many of you will be able to join us.
Best wishes
Nikki and Ed
Dr Nikki Kanani
GP and Medical Director for Primary Care,
NHS England and NHS Improvement
Ed Waller
Director for Primary Care, NHS England and NHS Improvement
COVID-19 updates
Supporting staff recovering from long COVID
NHS Employers has produced guidance for organisations on how they can work with line managers to support staff recovering from long COVID.
Vaccination programme milestone
Yesterday we met yet another major milestone for the COVID-19 vaccination programme. Over 55 million people have now been vaccinated thanks in large part to the efforts of primary care local vaccination sites. We’d like to give particular thanks to the over 500 community pharmacy vaccination sites who have delivered over 5 million vaccinations.
General practice
Priorities for this year’s Local GP Retention Fund
Funding for the Local GP Rention Fund continues this year with new national priorities for supporting doctors within an ICS. The fund, worth £12m nationally, is allocated to systems to create initiatives that provide GPs with the support they require to develop fulfilling careers in general practice. This could include coaching and mentoring, flexible working and ‘step-down’ opportunities.
This year, the national priority targets are supporting GPs at points of transition in their career and supporting new ways of working and embedding flexibility. ICSs continue to have the flexibility to fund any other perceived gaps in local support. Any GP who wants to find out more about the fund should contact their ICS. For information about other schemes which may be of interest, visit the GP Career Support Hub.
Becoming a UK visa sponsoring practice
Gaining the right to be a UK visa sponsoring practice has many advantages and could form an important part of your general practice workforce planning. You need a sponsorship licence to employ someone to work for you from outside the UK. As the number of international medical graduates undertaking GP training in England continues to increase, with around 700 due to qualify in 2021 alone (around one in three) and higher proportions in years to come, there is a greater chance that you will need a sponsorship licence to give you the broadest choice of UK trained GP candidates.
The Home Office is running a webinar which will provide a step by step guide on visa sponsorship on 15 June at 5pm. To attend, please register online.
Community pharmacy
Deadline for claiming GP CPCS engagement and set up fee
Contractors are reminded that the deadline to claim the fee for engagement with PCNs to implement the GP referral pathway to the NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service is 30 June 2021.
The NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) was extended across England in November 2020 to include minor illness referrals from general practices as well as from NHS 111. Contractors registered to provide the CPCS will be able to support this local preparatory work and they can claim a £300 engagement and setup payment if they undertake a range of actions to help get ready for implementing the referral pathway in their area.
Primary care
Joint National Plan for Inclusive Pharmacy Practice – survey
Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians are invited to take part in a survey about the Joint National Plan for Inclusive Pharmacy Practice in England and the Joint National Statement of Principles on Inclusive Pharmacy Professional Practice. This quick survey aims to capture your views and will be used to form part of our baseline for evaluation of the joint plan.
The joint plan and principles were co-produced by NHS England and NHS Improvement, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the Association of Pharmacy Technicians (UK), working with 12 national partners including the General Pharmaceutical Council. The principles were published on 25 September 2020 and the joint plan on 10 March 2021. The plan is currently being implemented across England. The survey closes on Sunday 13 June 2021.
Free Massive Online Open Course – Understanding Type 1 diabetes
In partnership with MyWay Digital Health, we’re hosting a Massive Online Open Course on ‘Understanding Type 1 diabetes’ on 17 and 18 June 2021. The two-day course offers educational materials, videos, live discussions and a supportive shared learning experience for anyone living with Type 1 diabetes and those that care for them, including friends, family and healthcare professionals.
Guidance for spirometry restoration in primary care
Spirometry is a test for diagnosing respiratory disease so people can benefit from optimal referral and treatment interventions; and during the COVID-19 pandemic these services have been disrupted.
This guidance document comprises information from the Association for Respiratory Technology and Physiology (ARTP) and the Primary Care Respiratory Society (PCRS) to aid restoration of spirometry services by mitigating risk to both staff and patients and sharing best practice. It has been developed from a task and finish group established by NHS England’s Clinical Policy.
Dates for your diary
Monday 7 June, 5pm – 6.30pm. Best MSKHealth Collaborative Update and FutureNHS Launch
Tuesday 8 June, 7pm – 8.30pm. Post COVID-19 syndrome (“Long covid”) Where are we now? RCGP webinar.
Wednesday 9 June, 11am – 12.30pm. Anticipatory Care - Personalised Care within Anticipatory Care
GP Appointment Data: GP practice briefing. These sessions hosted by NHS Digital will introduce recently issued national categorisation guidance and show practices how to carry out mapping to the new national standard categories. There are several dates available:
- Wednesday 9 June, 11.30am – 12.30pm
- Tuesday 15 June, 5pm – 6pm
Tuesday 15 June, 5pm – 6pm. Home Office webinar: becoming a UK visa sponsoring practice
Link of the day
