COVID-19 Primary Care bulletin

1 April 2020

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

Dear primary care colleagues,

Thank you again from the whole team here for all that you are doing working flexibly in different ways and settings. It is truly amazing at what is being achieved at such speed as the pandemic is sadly escalating in this country and abroad.

We will be holding our weekly webinar tomorrow at 5pm for general practice. Do join us if you are able to via MS Teams Live. This will be recorded and published online soon afterwards for those who are unable to join live.

Sara Hurley, Chief Dental Officer and Matt Neligan, Director of System Transformation, will be hosting their first webinar for dental colleagues on Friday. Details of how to join are in the ‘Dental’ section of this update.

Wishing you a peaceful evening.

Nikki and Ed

Optometry

This evening we have distributed and published the first guidance letter for those working in optical settings. This sets out changes to optometry services delivered outside hospital, infection control, PPE, 2020-21 contracts and finance and workforce.

Community pharmacy

Advice for health and justice healthcare teams on medicines and pharmacy services continuity

This guidance describes the changes that may be needed to provide continuity of medicines during an outbreak. Providers should already have plans for pandemic and seasonal flu outbreaks or major incidents that can be used and adapted for COVID-19 outbreaks.

COVID-19 – Cash flow uplift to pharmacy contractors’ payment on 1 April and on 1 May

Yesterday, the NHS Business Services Authority published information about an uplift to pharmacy contractor’s payment from today. To mitigate cash flow issues that contractors are facing due to COVID-19, an uplift of £300 million in total over the next two months will be made to contractors’ ‘advance payments’. This uplift is not additional funding over and above what was agreed for 2020/21 under the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework 5-year deal. The uplift will be reconciled in 2020/21. Further discussions continue with Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) on wider issues and further communications will follow.

Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) and Electronic Repeat Dispensing

Details about EPS and ERD were covered in the Preparedness update letter for general practice published on 27 March.

Easter opening for community pharmacy

As you will all understand, a crucial phase of the pandemic will be ongoing over what is usually a long Easter weekend but for the NHS more widely will be an extremely busy time and pharmacies will need to be open on Good Friday and Easter Monday as part of the wider NHS response to the pandemic. Further information on the requirements will follow as soon as possible and discussions are ongoing with PSNC.

General practice

Online and video consultation products now available 

A list of approved online and video consultation suppliers that can be immediately called off by commissioners via the Dynamic Procurement System (DPS) framework is available here. NHS Digital has also fast tracked assurance of video products on the new Digital Care Services Framework (DCS, also known as GPIT Futures). This confirms that practices who use video products through the DCSF can be confident that they are appropriate and secure. Commissioners can draw products off either framework and both will be centrally funded. 

Easter opening for general practice

We recognise that practices and the wider NHS will continue to be under ever-increasing pressure over the coming weeks, including through Easter (10 and 13 April) and, looking forward, to May bank holidays (8 and 25 May). Thank you for the working you are doing to prepare for this already. We need your help to be prepared and aligned with the rest of the NHS, which will be treating these as ordinary working days to ensure services are able to be maintained. April dates will now be identified as normal working days for GP practices, so that we can manage demand together across the NHS. The position for the May bank holidays will be confirmed next month. These details were published in the Preparedness update letter for general practice published on 27 March 2020.

Dentistry

Join our Chief Dental Officer and Director of Primary Care and System Transformation on Friday 3 April for a dental services webinar from 5pm. Type in the link below, or access the click directly via our primary care webinar webpage.

Additional information

Roll out of secure emails for social care providers

NHS England and NHS Improvement is working closely with NHS Digital to roll out NHSmail for social care providers at pace.  This means that, in addition to NHS mail, social care providers can use these other accredited, secure email addresses. If you have concerns about sharing information in a secure way, read this guidance from the Information Commissioner and this guidance on secure email accreditation.

Coronavirus Act – excess death provisions: information and guidance for medical practitioners

The Coronavirus Act of Parliament gained Royal Assent on 25 March 2020, and the commencement order for the clauses relating to death certification and cremation forms was signed on 26 March 2020. Guidance and information on these clauses are set out in this document, along with previous COVID-19 advice issued on 10 March, included for completeness.

Dates for your diary

2 April 4.30-5pm COVID-19 Helping practice staff make the most of digital services – register here

2 April 5-6pm Regular primary care webinar with Nikki Kanani and Ed Waller – join MS Teams live event 

3 April 5-6pm Covid-19 Dental services webinar with Sara Hurley, Chief Dental Officer and Matt Neligan, Director of Primary Care and System Transformation – join MS Teams live event

For details of upcoming webinars, or to watch recordings of previous webinars visit our webinars webpage.

Nikki and Ed's Link of the Day

From the Royal College of Nursing:

• Remote prescribing
• Immunisation
• Infection prevention and control