Primary Care Bulletin

18 August 2022

Dear colleagues,

Earlier today we published a letter on the Autumn COVID-19 booster and flu vaccine programme. Thank you for the preparations you have been making since February to deliver this programme, which is an important part of the NHS’s winter plan. The government have accepted the JCVI advice on the COVID-19 booster vaccination programme for autumn and the letter sets out the actions we are now asking you to take, as well as operational details systems should consider, when finalising plans.

Yesterday we also published the 2022-23 General Practice Enhanced Service Specifications and Community Pharmacy Advanced Service Specification for the Seasonal Flu Programmes.

GP Practices are asked to confirm by 31 August to their local commissioner that they wish to participate in the enhanced services. Some practices may wish to collaborate with other practices to deliver flu vaccinations and a template Influenza Collaboration Agreement has been provided.

PCN Groupings that wish to co-administer the COVID-19 and flu vaccines and/or synergistically deliver them should do so in accordance with the Seasonal Influenza ES and phase 5 COVID-19 Enhanced Service where a template for COVID-19 Collaboration Agreement is also available to support co-administration and synergistic delivery. 

Where community pharmacies have also been commissioned to deliver COVID-19 vaccinations and wish to co-administer COVID-19 and flu vaccines, they should do so in accordance with the phase 5 Community Pharmacy COVID-19 Enhanced Service specification. 

Ursula and Raj 

Key updates including COVID-19

Prioritisation of varicella vaccine during supply shortage

In light of the current supply shortages of varicella vaccines (VARILRIX and VARIVAX), the UKHSA recommends prioritising available stock for those at greatest risk from severe disease. In the current situation, varicella vaccine should be restricted to the following groups:

1. Susceptible child household contacts of immunocompromised individuals
2. Susceptible adult household contacts of immunocompromised individuals
3. Non-immune health care workers working with severely immunosuppressed patients (as defined in the Green book)

During the current shortage, vaccination of other healthcare workers and laboratory workers should be deferred.

Advanced systems outage - update

Work is continuing to restore services in a safe and managed way following the recent cyber incident affecting Advanced, a third-party software supplier. The software that has been taken offline is used by a number of NHS services, including NHS 111, and is impacting 111 referrals to GP practices, through GP access hubs, pharmacy and dental as well as mental health services. Our FutureNHS page is being regularly updated with the latest information. This includes impact on services as well as information that can be used to support conversations with patients.

General practice

Improving GP finder on nhs.uk – catchment areas

A new GP finder will be launched on the 15 September to improve people’s experience when registering with a GP practice. A new catchment area filter will help patients find GP practices which they are eligible to register with. The filter will use the latest catchment area information from the electronic Declaration (eDEC).

Practice staff with permission to submit their eDEC can login to SDCS at any time and amend their boundaries to improve data quality; or apply more substantive changes if agreed with their commissioner. Practices are encouraged to check their catchment areas prior to launch.

Expansion of the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme’s home testing (FIT kit)

From April 2022 eligible 58 year olds in England have started to receive a Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) kit as part of the expansion of the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme. This is the second phase of the wider plan to lower the starting age of bowel cancer screening to aged 50 years by 2025.

As age extension is gradually introduced, 58 year olds will now automatically receive an invite to do the FIT home testing kit when they become eligible. Amongst the first regions to have now commenced roll out to 58 year olds, is London, which has the lowest uptake rates in England. The FIT home testing kit is already available in England to everyone registered with a GP aged 60 to 74.

General practice workforce survey: research priority setting

The School of Health Sciences, University of Surrey, is conducting a national survey to identify and prioritise a shortlist of service delivery challenges that require further research, as identified by the general practice workforce.

Findings will be used to explore evidence and implementation gaps to ensure that future research seeks to address areas of unmet need, as determined by the workforce. It asks what is working well in general practice, where are the challenges and what needs fixing. The survey closes on Friday 23 September 2022.

Primary care

Next steps to rapidly increase capacity and resilience ahead of winter

Last Friday, we published a letter setting out the next steps in our plans to rapidly increase capacity and resilience ahead of winter, building on the operational plans developed across the system. This letter sets out the important actions for every part of the NHS to put in place, and how NHS England will support systems in responding to these pressures and targeting the objectives set out.

Future vaccination strategy

We shared our intention to seek your views on a future vaccination and immunisation strategy in our letter of 22 June 2022.  A market engagement exercise has now been launched. This is an opportunity to share your views on what is working well and what could be improved to maximise uptake of vaccinations, reduce variation, and continue to protect people and their families. We invite you to contribute on the future shape of vaccination services before 30 September via the portal using quote/tender ref 56405.

Health and Wellbeing Champions ‘Understanding Health Improvement’ qualification

As part of the national Health and Wellbeing Champions development programme, NHS England are funding 750 places across England for HWB Champions to complete the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) Level 2 Award in Understanding Health Improvement.

The qualification is open to HWB Champions across primary and secondary care, and we will be running an application process to ensure an equal representation across regions and sectors. Colleagues have the option of both virtual and face-to-face learning, with cohorts running from September 2022 – March 2023.

For more information and how to apply, please visit the 'supporting our NHS people' webpage.

Complex Emotional Needs and Personality Disorder training programme development

The Health Education England (HEE) National Knowledge and Understanding Framework (KUF) Hub is developing a package of e-learning to support GPs and primary care staff to better meet the needs of patients with Complex Emotional Needs (CEN), often associated with a diagnosis of personality disorder (PD).

To support this, the team are running a short five-minute survey for all colleagues in general practice, which will help create a training programme that will effectively address needs in this complex area. The closing date for the survey is the 12 September 2022. If you have any questions relating to the survey and/or proposed training, please email daron.oram@annafreud.org. To sign up to KUF newsletter, contact kufhub@nhs.net.

Fractional exhaled Nitric Oxide (FeNO) testing in Primary Care 

The University of Hull, in collaboration with Hull York Medical School (HYMS), are doing a short survey to explore the use of FeNO testing within English primary care settings and would like to hear from primary care clinicians. 

If you are a clinician working in primary care as a General Practitioner, General Practice Nurse, Advanced Clinical Practitioner, Nurse Practitioner or Nursing Associate, please complete their short questionnaire. The survey will collect information relating to the current use (if any) of FeNO testing in primary care settings. The team hope their findings may help promote the equitable provision of FeNO testing and supported learning packages for primary care clinicians.  

Upcoming events and webinars

Various dates, August – December. Public participation online learning programme

23 August, 11am – 12.30pm. Online tools for engagement

24 August, 11am – 12pm. Peer Leadership: Our approach to enabling coproduction

24 August, 1.30pm – 3pm. Optimising Access in General Practice QOF QI Module

30 August, 3pm – 4pm. Introducing the health inclusion tool

Various dates, September – December. New statutory guidance on working with people and communities  

1 September, 2pm – 3pm. Patient Participation groups and the art of the possible

1 September, 5pm – 6pm. General Practice webinar

2 September, 1pm – 2pm. GPN National Update

5 September, 2pm – 3.30pm. CVD Prevention webinar series: Increasing public education

7 September, 12.30pm – 1:15pm. Free, live webinar: BMJ Best Practice for primary care

Particularly useful for GPs and their multidisciplinary practice teams, this webinar will consider how primary care colleagues can best to use the NHS Knowledge and Library Services tool and its many benefits, in practice, on call and during study.

12 September, 12.30pm – 1.30pm. Priorities for Long COVID

14 September, 1pm – 2.30pm. Faith organisations and social prescribing

15 September, 12.30pm – 2pm. Long COVID interventional research studies

Link of the week

BLOG: Overcoming barriers to GP registration