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Primary Care Bulletin - today's round-up
4 May 2021
Dear colleagues,
The latest government figures show the UK's pandemic is moving into a new phase, with many areas seeing low levels of coronavirus. This is very positive news and is, in part, testament to the incredible work of the vaccination programme. As we move towards the next step in the government’s recovery roadmap, we know that people will begin to feel more confident about coming forward for healthcare advice and treatment.
Restoring services and recovering backlogs will require us to do things differently and it will take a unified effort across the whole of the NHS. We look forward to engaging with many of you on how we best do this, building on what we have learned during the pandemic to transform the delivery of services.
We must ensure we are supporting patients to access to the right care as quickly and easily as possible. We have produced a communications toolkit to support general practice to communicate with patients.
We also have public facing campaign resources that can be downloaded and used on social media channels:
Working with Public Health England and NHS.uk we will continue to make information available to the public on where and how to seek healthcare advice, including the important role of community pharmacy.
We thank you again for all you do.
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
A Beacon of Hope: The UK Vaccine Story
The Government has shared a new vaccination film called The Beacon of Hope, which covers the story of the development and delivery of the COVID-19 vaccine. There is also a short advert running on primetime television.
This film covers some extraordinary moments in the journey to create a vaccine, shining the light on our NHS people and the pivotal part they’ve played in saving lives. We are so proud of our NHS and everyone who has been working tirelessly to provide care and support in such difficult circumstances.
National guidance for post-COVID syndrome assessment clinics
The commissioning guidance to assist local healthcare systems to establish and run post-COVID assessment clinics has been updated and published. There are now 83 clinics open and taking referrals across the country. Each region has an identified lead for post-COVID services, the details of which are available on the Primary Care FutureNHS site, along with information on how local teams or post-COVID assessment services can refer patients into Your COVID Recovery. You can contact your regional lead for further information on long COVID services and patient pathways in your area.
E-learning modules to support detection of early deterioration of patients with COVID-1
Health Education England e-Learning for Healthcare (HEE e-LfH) has worked in partnership with other NHS organisations, the West of England Academic Health Science Network, and the Wessex Local Medical Committee, to develop two free e-learning resources for carers and non-registered healthcare professionals, to support detection of early deterioration of patients with COVID-19.
The NHS @home e-learning programme currently covers the COVID-19 Oximetry @home and COVID-19 virtual wards pathways, enabling people to be confidently monitored in community settings such as care homes. No account or log-in is required to access these resources.
General practice
Your chance to inform staff training in primary care
Health Education England and NHS England and NHS Improvement would like to hear from GPs about their experiences of delivering remote triage in general practice. Your input will be crucial in designing effective training to support all primary care staff and trainees to confidently work with these approaches.
Virtual focus groups will be run by our research partner, Nightingale, in May-June 2021. If you would like to participate, find out more about the study here.
NHS Digital Weight Management Programme
The NHS Digital Weight Management Programme offers digital access to weight management services for those with obesity plus either diabetes, or hypertension, or both, accessible freely by e-referral from all general practices in England. Following a period of testing, we are entering an early adopter phase which provides an excellent opportunity for practices to engage with the programme and become accustomed to making referrals, ahead of a full launch in the summer which is expected to coincide with a proposed GP incentive.
Find comprehensive information and details on how your practice can start referring immediately.
Community Pharmacy
Updated social media access graphics
Updated graphics are available to promote ways to access pharmacy services during the pandemic, including social distancing. They can be used on social media channels to inform the public. The download includes suggested social media copy and a video for digital screens.
Primary care
Save the date: National Thank You Day (Sunday 4 July 2021)
On Sunday 4 July the Together coalition will lead a national day of thanks and recognition to celebrate the incredible work of our NHS staff, as well as all key workers and others in our communities who have helped us through this challenging year. We encourage you to join May Parsons, the Nurse who gave the first COVID-19 vaccine, and many others in supporting the initiative. Show your support here and we’ll keep you updated.
We’ve been #LookingAfterYouToo for one year
We’ve recently celebrated the one year anniversary of our #LookingAfterYouToo coaching support for primary care colleagues. Our coaches are still on hand for anyone who needs to talk, so please do book a session if you need support. Listen to what GP and coachee Katie Barnett had to say about her experience here.
New roles in primary care - national toolkit
This toolkit has been developed to enable primary and community care training hubs to work collaboratively with PCNs towards the development of the primary care workforce, as outlined in the GP contract.
Training hubs are designed to meet the educational needs of the multidisciplinary primary care team and bring together NHS organisations, community providers and local authorities. This resource will allow training hubs to work with their PCNs and support workforce planning, providing a valuable resource for systems developing their primary care workforce. This toolkit refers not only to roles included in the ARRS, but to all new roles in primary care.
Availability of pulse oximeters for remote monitoring of patients with coronavirus
Primary care colleagues requiring pulse oximeters to support the remote management of COVID patients in primary and community settings as part of COVID Oximetry @home or COVID virtual wards can continue to request oximeters from the national supply via the local CCG. The Operational Planning and Contracting Guidance recommended primary care networks
continue to use home oximetry and virtual wards to meet the needs of patients with COVID-19. Please email england.home@nhs.net for more information.
Proactive Care @home webinar
As part of the national NHS @home programme, colleagues from the Innovation Agency (Academic Health Science Network for the North West Coast) are holding a webinar on Wednesday 12 May to explore the application of Proactive Care frameworks to support people with long term conditions in primary care. The frameworks, developed by UCL Partners, currently cover hypertension, type 2 diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) and asthma. The webinar will feature Dr Matt Kearney, former National Clinical Director for CVD Prevention and Cheshire and Merseyside GP, talking about how the frameworks have been implemented in practice.
Dates for your diary
Wednesday 5 May, 4pm UK / 8.30pm India Standard Time. COVID remote oximetry monitoring and management. The South Asian Health Foundation and AHSN Network is hosting a webinar to support clinicians in India and elsewhere with the NHS’s learning from the COVID Oximetry @home and COVID virtual wards programme.
Thursday 6 May, 5pm – 6pm. General Practice webinar. If you have previously booked to join this regular webinar, there is no need to book on again.
Wednesday 12 May, 12pm – 1.30pm. Proactive Care@Home webinar: supporting patients with LTCs
Wednesday 12 May, 1pm – 2pm. New types of cancer treatments and their effects
Thursday 13 May, 1pm – 2.45pm. Civility and Respect event
Thursday 13 May, 2021 at 1.30 – 2.30pm. How we can help Hidden People access the COVID Vaccine
Monday 24 May, 2pm – 3pm. Lipid Management-Delivering on National CVD priorities using a population health management approach
Tuesday 25 May, 1pm – 1.30pm. Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) in suspected bowel cancer
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:
- Tuesday 11 May, 8am – 9am
- Thursday 27 May, 4pm – 5pm
- Wednesday 9 June, 11.30am – 12.30pm
- Tuesday 15 June, 5pm – 6pm
Link of the day
