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Primary Care Bulletin - today's round-up
30 December 2021
Dear colleagues,
We know this is a busy and difficult period, with Omicron cases still rising and the continued push to get everyone vaccinated as well as the usual winter pressures.
Please do keep your CCG/commissioner informed of any issues which may impact on patient services and work with them to find resolutions during these challenging times.
We have heard from all primary care contractor groups that access to COVID-19 testing, both lateral flow tests (LFT) and PCR, is still proving challenging.
If you are experiencing delays in receiving testing kits please work with your commissioner who can put you in contact with your regional testing lead, to ensure that staff can be tested and return to work, when safe to do so. Through regional testing leads, a significant contingency supply of LFTs has been distributed to the NHS and local authorities to be used in times of extremis.
Where PCR testing through normal routes is unavailable, Pillar 1 capacity may be utilised. This is dependent on local need and agreement, and the availability of staff to enable swabbing. Again, please speak to your commissioner for further information.
If services are disrupted due to staff sickness or shortages, it is very important that the NHS Directory of Services (DoS) is updated, to ensure patients are appropriately signposted to available services.
The DoS provides real-time information to NHS 111, 111 Online and integrated urgent care (IUC). DoS reporting provides intelligence on primary care capacity and any associated challenges. It gives an oversight of service capacity at a regional and national level, so it is vital it is maintained.
Community pharmacies and dental practices should have direct access to update their DoS profiles using the DoS Profile Updater. This includes changes to opening hours and temporary closures. The changes are visible within 10 minutes. There is also a DoS Capacity Status tool where providers can mark themselves red, amber or green in terms of capacity.
General practices can request changes through their CCG if they don’t update their own profile directly. Further guidance for general practices on updating DoS is available on the NHS England website.
We’d like to wish all our colleagues in primary care a very happy new year.
Nikki and Ursula
Dr Nikki Kanani
GP and Medical Director for Primary Care,
Deputy SRO, COVID-19 Vaccination Deployment Programme
NHS England and NHS Improvement
Dr Ursula Montgomery
GP and Interim GP Transformation Director NHS England and NHS Improvement
Primary care
2022/23 priorities and operational planning guidance
The 2022/23 priorities and operational planning guidance published last week, sets out our priorities for the year ahead. This guidance reconfirms the ongoing needed to restore services, meet new care demands and reduce the care backlogs that are a direct consequence of the pandemic.
The objectives set out in this document are based on a scenario where COVID-19 returns to a low level and we are able to make significant progress in the first part of next year as we continue to rise to the challenge of restoring services and reducing the COVID backlogs.
Winter Vaccination for Inclusion Health Groups
A new blog post highlighting the unequal impact of COVID-19 and seasonal influenza (flu) on people from inclusion health groups has been produced by the UK Health Security Agency, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities and NHS England and Improvement. The blog discusses the importance of tailoring our approach to vaccination to ensure that protection is available and accessible to everyone at risk in our communities.
Upcoming events and webinars
January – March 2022 (multiple dates). CPCS workshops with RPS & RCGP
5 January, 1pm – 2.30pm. National Social Prescribing Link Worker Webinar Series: Looking after yourself and accepting and responding to change
13 January, 5pm – 6pm. General Practice webinar
18 January, 10am – 11.30am. Personal health budget community of practice
19 January, 1.30pm – 2.30pm. Social Prescribing Link Worker Learning and Development Webinar Series: Tackling Health Inequalities
2 February, 9am – 12pm. Digital Health Innovation Collaborative – free online event
Link of the Week
