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Primary Care Bulletin - today's round-up
9 March 2021
Dear colleagues,
We strongly encourage all health and care staff to get vaccinated. Our clinical leaders agree with the Chief Medical Officer that NHS staff have a professional responsibility to get vaccinated and we hope as many as possible are able take up the offer. If you have any concerns about the vaccine, please speak to your employer.
The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and its Royal College member organisations have now published a statement on their strong support for the UK vaccination programme, and the importance of health and care staff getting vaccinated. To reinforce take up amongst health and care professionals, we suggest the following statement is widely shared through all networks.
COVID Oximetry @home: updated guidance
In November 2020, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were recommended to put in place a ‘COVID Oximetry @home’ model as rapidly as possible, further to guidance on the use of pulse oximetry first published in June 2020. The standard operating procedure has been updated (1 March 2021) which sets out a base standard for patient self-monitoring. It should not supplant existing arrangements where these are already established and working.
Kiren and Ali
Dr Kiren Collison
GP and Deputy Medical Director for Primary Care, NHS England and NHS Improvement
Ali Sparke
Interim Director for Primary Care Covid Response, NHS England and NHS Improvement
COVID-19 updates and guidance
New text message service for COVID-19 vaccination invitations
As the COVID-19 Vaccination programme moves on to new age groups, the National Booking Service will shortly begin carefully trialling a text message service for COVID-19 vaccination invitations and reminders, in addition to the letters that are currently sent to eligible people. It is hoped that this approach will help the NHS issue invites to eligible groups more quickly and be more convenient for lots of people, particularly those in younger age groups.
People receiving these text messages will be invited to book online at nhs.uk/covidvaccine or by calling 119, for an appointment at a local Vaccination Centre or pharmacy-led site. The text message will be sent using the Government’s secure Notify service. They will appear as being sent from NHSvaccine. These text messages are in addition to those which are currently being used by some hospitals and local GP-led vaccination services.
COVID-19 vaccinations for eligible unpaid carers
This standard operating procedure (SOP) draws on national and local sources for known carers, to help identify and enable them to be invited quickly for vaccination, as well as making provision for those unpaid carers who may not already be known to the health and social care system to come forward.
Ordering and delivery of second round of lateral flow devices
All primary care contractors (medical, pharmacy, dentistry and optometry) will be invited this week directly by Primary Care Support England (PCSE) to place their second round of orders for lateral flow devices (LFDs). This is to supply primary care staff delivering NHS services of a new box of 25 tests to enable them to test for another 12 weeks, once their first order for all staff has run out.
The ordering and delivery process will work in the same manner as for the first round. Primary care contractors should carefully take notice of the following key points:
- Please place your order on the PCSE online portal as soon as possible, once you have received a direct email from PCSE.
- Order your test kits, separately from any other weekly orders, as any orders placed with other supplies items cannot be processed and will need to be cancelled.
- You will receive confirmation of your order. Please make sure you do not place duplicate orders, as this will delay the process.
- Please order one item per member of staff. The maximum order quantity on the portal is 54. If you need to order for more than 54 members of staff, please email pcse.urgentsupplies@nhs.net
- Deliveries will start on 25 March and will be delivered over the next two-three weeks after this date.
- Reporting of all test results via gov.uk remains imperative – whether negative, void or positive. This is a statutory notifiable disease reporting requirement.
Updated information for clinicians and health care professionals on COVID-19 Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing
From 5 March, the online COVID-19 PCR test booking page includes an additional reason for getting a test, to make it easier for a patient to book a test when recommended by a GP. The patient is now able to choose as a reason for getting a test the option ‘A GP or other healthcare professional has asked me (or someone I live with) to get a test’.
This addition is designed to support patients in accessing testing where they have been instructed to by a GP, no matter what their symptoms are. No referral is required to book a test under this option. This change simply means that where a GP deems it appropriate to recommend a patient takes a PCR test, that process is now more straightforward. This change has no additional impact on any other access to testing or other PCR testing services in general practice.
All people who have had a stroke or TIA must be offered the COVID-19 vaccine in priority group 6
The Stroke Association colleagues have advised that they are seeing a prevalence of calls to their helpline from stroke survivors who are being told different eligibility criteria for the COVID-19 vaccine by their doctors and in some instances, are not being offered the vaccine as a result.
Given the high prevalence of stroke and the resulting clinical frailty, we want to remind you that all stroke survivors (including subarachnoid haemorrhage) and those who have had a TIA are in priority group six and are therefore eligible to receive the vaccine. Read more about the schedule for the UK and the eligibility criteria for cohort six in the COVID-19 Green Book Chapter 14a.
Guidance on post-COVID syndrome
Post-COVID syndrome can have an effect on people's day to day functioning and ability to return to work. The Faculty of Occupational Medicine has produced guidance on Post-COVID syndrome for patients to support them to return to work and for employers to support their employees back to work. This link can be given to patients to pass to their employers. It can also be used by practices to support their own workforce.
General practice
School absence note requests: for information to General Practice staff
Following joint work by the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Education (DfE), School Reopening Guidance issued by DfE on 22 February has reminded schools they should not encourage parents to request unnecessary medical evidence i.e. doctors’ notes from their GP when their child is absent from school due to illness (p33). If evidence is required, it can take the form of prescriptions, appointment cards, text/email appointment confirmations etc. Input from GPs should only be sought where there are complex health needs/persistent absence issues.
This guidance also confirms the procedure for clinically extremely vulnerable children, and for those absent from school due to COVID-19 and self-isolation.
Primary care
Online peer support group and learning videos
ProjectM is an online peer support group targeted at middle managers. The platform is a space for team leaders and managers to connect, share and learn together. It hosts a series of bitesize learning videos with carefully considered prompt questions on a range of topics including ‘Being a vulnerable leader’ and ‘Does inclusion start with privilege?’ New content is added through feedback, contributions and emerging themes.
Guidance on implementing the overseas visitor charging regulations
Following the outcome of the UK-EU negotiations and the implementation of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, DHSC have updated the information for NHS bodies who need to make and recover hospital charges from oversea visitors. This guidance seeks to provide help and advice and replaces all previous guidance on the implementation of the Charging Regulations.
GPhC changes to revalidation requirements between 1 May – 30 November 21
The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has announced that registrants due to submit their revalidation records between 1 May – 30 November 2021 will only need to submit a reflective account when they renew their registration during that period.
The GPhC changed its revalidation requirements in March 2020 in recognition of the pressures on pharmacy professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic and is continuing the approach for pharmacy professionals who are due to renew their registration on or before 30 November 2021 and whose registration expires on or before 31 January 2022.
Information from GPhC for pre-registration assessment candidates
The GPhC has published a briefing note setting out the actions it is taking to ensure candidates can book onto pre-registration assessments taking place in March 2021. Further information about the registration assessment is available on the applying to sit the registration assessment page of the GPhC website.
Public Health England’s National Ambitions for CVD Prevention
The National Cardiovascular Intelligence Network have produced CVD Prevention Packs to support PHE’s national ambitions for CVD prevention. PDF versions for each STP in England are available via PHE Fingertips.
The updated packs include data (based on QOF 2019/20) on progress towards meeting the PHE national ambitions for hypertension and AF detection and treatment; along with charts on behavioural risk factors and NHS Health Checks, with inequality breakdowns shown where available. There is also accompanying guidance which provides more information about the data sources, format of the charts and methodology.
If you have any queries or feedback please email NCVIN@phe.gov.uk, or would like to attend a webinar on this please sign up via Eventbrite.
Community Champions launch
We are working with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and Public Health England on a Community Champions programme to support those communities most impacted by the pandemic. Funding is being provided to selected local authorities to set up new community champion schemes or to enhance existing schemes in response to the pandemic.
Community champions are individuals living and/or working in specific communities, speaking community languages and understanding their culture who work with NHS organisations and local authorities to explain national messages, identify barriers and improve community health.
For any queries on the programme, its delivery and the partners please email: community.champions@communities.gov.uk.
Blog: Tackling health inequalities in the NHS
This blog by Dr Bola Owolabi speaks about her personal experiences with health inequalities, and how her appointment as NHS England and NHS Improvement’s Director of Health Inequalities at the end of 2020 is an important signal in tackling the issue.
Dates for your diary
Thursday 11 March, 5pm – 6pm. General Practice Webinar with Dr Kiren Collison and Ali Sparke
Dr Kiren Collison and Ali Sparke will provide a general update before Dr Nikki Kanani and Ed Waller lead on updates about the COVID-19 vaccination programme, with a summary update for GPs on implementation plans. There will also be an update on the Primary Care Network (PCN) Dashboard and Population Health Management.
Tuesday 16 March, 9am – 5pm. NHS and the armed forces conference
Wednesday 17 March, 9.30am – 11am. Supporting your team to work flexibly
Wednesday 17 March, 3.30pm – 5pm. Inclusion health self-assessment tool live demonstration
Thursday 18 March, 1pm – 2pm. Learning from co-production – using better engagement to address health inequalities
Thursday 18 March, 2pm – 3.30pm. Workforce recruitment and retention in PCNs
Monday 22 March, 1pm – 2pm. Public Health England: CVD Prevention Packs update
Wednesday 24 March, 10am - 11am. Connecting with our local community to deliver the COVID vaccine programme
Thursday 25 March, 9.30am – 11am. Flexible working: how to ask
Thursday 25 March, 10.30am – 11.30 am. Building and developing trusted connections with communities
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