COVID-19 Primary Care bulletin

15 July 2020

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

Dear colleagues,

The latest Preparedness letter for primary dental care has been distributed and added to our website. This letter is the fifth of a series of regular updates to general dental practices and community dental services regarding the COVID-19 situation.

On Monday, the Ministry of Justice launched a four-week consultation on introducing more severe penalties for assaulting an emergency worker. After consulting with the public including with those who represent emergency workers, the Government will decide whether to bring forward legislation which could double the maximum sentence to two years in prison.

While the overwhelming majority of people show great respect for our staff on the front line, it is never acceptable when NHS staff have to suffer violence or abuse while at work. They do a phenomenal job, and this has never been truer than in the past few months.

Raj and Ed

General practice

Advice and Guidance toolkit for the NHS e-Referral Service

Advice and Guidance (A&G) services enable secure and rapid communication between primary and secondary care colleagues across a range of specialties. A&G provides one of the three main NHS e-Referral Service (e-RS) channels via which a GP may obtain a clinical opinion.

By facilitating access to specialist advice prior to or instead of referral, A&G services help reduce unnecessary outpatient activity and deliver better outcomes for patients.

To help increase the uptake of A&G, the National Elective Care Transformation Programme has made various tools and resources available to GPs via its Community of Practice platform. Please email ECDC-manager@future.nhs.uk for access.

Further support is also available on the Advice and Guidance toolkit for the NHS e-Referral Service webpage.

New animated video to support total triage in general practice

As part of Health Education England's (HEE) e-learning programme for COVID-19, a remote total triage in general practice resource has been developed by our Digital First Primary Care Team and HEE to support all GP practices in England with the rapid implementation of a ‘total triage’ model.

To complement the existing HEE resource five new animated videos, aimed at those who are implementing a remote total triage model in general practice, have just been launched. These short videos cover each of the key steps needed including – planning, support and training, making changes and using the triage system.

The videos can be accessed for free and without the need to register, simply by clicking on the e-learning’s play button.

First Contact Physiotherapists (FCPs) are playing a significant role in helping primary care services meet the health needs of their local population during the COVID-19 pandemic

Musculoskeletal (MSK) FCP roles, which are now funded under the new PCN DES, have proven particularly important for supporting self-management whilst delivering services virtually under the lockdown.

The role frees up GPs to see non-MSK patients and is shown to reduce the number of requests for imaging and onward referrals to secondary care. Many FCPs are also prescribers.

With the expectation that general practice will see an increase in MSK patients seeking an appointment as the lockdown eases, primary care networks will want to consider including FCPs in their workforce plans.

We have commissioned a national evaluation to help design services and identify workforce needs. The evaluation will be published later this year.

Further resources and implementation guidance are available from the CSP website and the Elective Care Community of Practice.  

Community pharmacy

Webinar recording – risk assessment in community pharmacy

We wrote to community pharmacies on 24 June 2020 to ask them to carry out a risk assessment of their pharmacy staff who are at potentially greater risk of COVID-19 within a four week period. On 8 July 2020 we held a webinar, involving speakers from the National Pharmacy Association and Royal Pharmaceutical Society, to help and support community pharmacy employers and managers to carry out these risk assessments within the agreed timescale.

This risk assessment work is an important part of a wider programme that the NHS is leading nationally to address the impact of COVID-19 on the BAME workforce. This includes work to improve protection, support and representation for the BAME pharmacy workforce across all sectors including community pharmacy teams.

The webinar recording and slides have been published on the FutureNHS website. The NHS Business Services Authority has sent every pharmacy a briefing and link to a risk assessment SNAP Survey to complete. There will be two windows for collection of information, by 17 July 2020 and by 31 July 2020 – please complete the declaration in both windows.

Pharmacy Quality Scheme – Essential Criteria Checklist

We have worked with the Department of Health and Social Care and Pharmacy Services Negotiation Committee to develop a new Pharmacy Quality Scheme (PQS) for 2020/21 which will be in two parts. Part 1 recognises the work many pharmacy contractors have already completed as a result of COVID-19 to ensure a safer environment for all staff and people who visit the pharmacy.

It is an Essential Criteria Checklist which includes a list of actions that must all be completed by any contractor wishing to claim a payment of £1,630 for PQS 2020/21 Part 1. Claims  can be made via the NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA) Manage Your Service website and contractors are encouraged to complete this as soon as possible. Full details of the checklist can be found in the Drug Tariff determination on the NHS BSA website.

Completing Part 1 before 29 January 2021 is a prerequisite for claiming Part 2 of the PQS which will be announced in September 2020.

Employing a provisionally-registered pharmacist guidance

The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has written to pharmacy owners and superintendents to share guidance about employing provisionally-registered pharmacists.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the ability of trainees completing the pharmacist pre-registration scheme in 2020 to finish their training as planned, and to sit the registration assessment as originally scheduled.

Pending successful completion of the rescheduled assessment, the GPhC governing council has agreed a policy for registering pharmacists on a provisional basis.

The policy sets out that current pre-registration trainees who meet the criteria for provisional registration are able to be provisionally-registered as a pharmacist, with certain restrictions, from 1 August 2020.

The guidance sets out what employers and superintendents must do, if they plan to employ a pharmacist who is provisionally registered.

Optometry

The most recent guidance letter and standard operating procedure for optical staff is available on our website.

Dentistry

Preparedness letter for primary dental care

We have published the fifth in a series of regular updates to general dental practices and community dental services regarding the emerging COVID-19 situation. A copy of this letter and all our other relevant guidance can be found here.

Dental Fit Tester Training Courses begin

The first courses in our Fit Testing Support Plan began this week. Regions have worked collaboratively with Public Health England, Health Education England and Respiratory Protective Assessment Ltd. to arrange for the training of 80 fit testers per region who will support dental practices with fit testing of FFP2 and FFP3 PPE. The courses will begin on 16 July and will continue through August and early September.

Once trained, the fit testers, who have been drawn from local dental services, will provide fit testing for NHS colleagues in surrounding local practices. 

Additional information

NHS Parliamentary Awards now open until 1 September

Earlier this year, we launched the NHS Parliamentary Awards sponsored by Fuji Film, an award programme designed to encourage health and care organisations to engage with their local MPs, tell them about the work they do, and build or strengthen ongoing relationships.

From 2 July 2020, the nomination portal will be open to new nominations. The window for nominations is open until midnight on Tuesday 1 September 2020. We have a specific dedicated category to honour excellence in primary care and best of all, it’s totally free to enter.

We would encourage all primary care organisations to reach out to their MPs to encourage them to put them forward for consideration.

Download our information pack for health and care organisations to help you put forward a nomination today. For more information about the awards contact NHS England and NHS Improvement’s communications team: nhs.stakeholderengagement@nhs.net.

Mental health apps to support children and young people 

A team across NHSX, NHS Digital, NHS England and NHS Improvement is working to identify a number of digital tools to support children, young people and adults who are experiencing increased mental health needs as a result of COVID-19, disrupted education or end of year exams. 

Healios, the first supplier to complete the process for its ThinkNinja app, has now made this app available to download free of charge to all 10-18 year olds until the end of September. ThinkNinja will be joining over 20 existing apps already approved on the NHS Apps library for users to choose from. Information about the team’s work is available in this blog.

Dates for your diary

Friday 24 July, 10am-11pm – COVID-19 Homeless Health in the Northwest (Sharing the Learning). No registration required – click the link on the date. Hear about multiagency working which is leading to significant improvements in access to healthcare and support for the homeless population in Merseyside and more.

NHS Volunteer Responder programme updates – new webinars

Fortnightly webinars are being held to provide regular updates on the NHS Volunteer Responder programme. The webinars are for referrers and colleagues working across health and care, including: primary care; social care; local authorities; government departments; voluntary sector organisations; STPs and ICSs; and NHS England and Improvement regional teams.

These webinars will provide an overview of the programme, including facts, figures and the most recent updates on programme adaptations in response to policy changes and the needs of vulnerable people. They are also an ideal opportunity to ask questions about the programme and hear about the impact it is having.

The first webinar will be held next week, with further sessions following every two weeks. Dates for the first six webinars, and the links to join them, are listed below:

• Thursday 23 July, 11am-12pm - Join Microsoft Teams Meeting
• Thursday 6 August, 11am-12pm - Join Microsoft Teams Meeting
• Thursday 20 August, 11am-12pm - Join Microsoft Teams Meeting
• Thursday 3 September, 11am-12pm - Join Microsoft Teams Meeting
• Thursday 17 September, 11am–12pm - Join Microsoft Teams Meeting
• Thursday 1 October, 11am-12pm - Join Microsoft Teams Meeting

Raj and Ed's link of the day 

One year on and one pandemic later: what’s happened to primary care networks and other forms of primary and community care collaboration?