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Primary Care Bulletin - today's round-up
3 February 2022
Dear colleagues,
This is my (Ursula) first bulletin in the role of Interim Director of Primary Care. The baton has been passed to me from Ed Waller, who has been a dedicated supporter and champion of everyone who works in primary care and the services you deliver. I'd like to thank him for all his hard work during his years in post.
Today (3 Feb) is Time to Talk Day - a day that friends, families, communities, and workplaces come together to talk, listen and change lives by having conversations about mental health. We know many of you have been able to access our #LookingAfterYou offer, which provides confidential and bespoke coaching with one of our experienced coaches. There is also a wealth of guidance and support available for all NHS colleagues, including health and wellbeing programmes on our website.
Update on legislation requiring vaccination as a condition of deployment
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care announced on Monday (31 Jan) that the Government is looking to revoke the regulations requiring vaccination as a condition of deployment for healthcare workers from 1 April 2022. This is subject to Parliamentary process and will require further consultation and a vote to be passed into legislation. The timetable for this is not yet available.
NHS England and NHS Improvement wrote to the system following the announcement, which included a request that employers do not serve notice of termination to employees affected by the VCOD regulations. We are reviewing current guidance and, where necessary, will provide an update when further information is available.
A huge effort has been put in to increasing the already high take-up among NHS staff, whether through one to one conversations or the many other methods deployed. This is very much appreciated, and the vaccine remains the best way to protect ourselves, our families, our colleagues, and patients from the virus.
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 Director for Primary Care NHS England and NHS Improvement
COVID-19 updates
COVID-19 treatment policy update
An updated UK COVID-19 treatment policy has been published to provide two additional antiviral treatment options for non-hospitalised patients from 10 February 2022. Clinical studies show that either PF-07321332 (nirmatrelvir) plus ritonavir (together known as Paxlovid), an antiviral pill; or a three-day intravenous course of remdesivir can reduce the risk of hospitalisation and death for patients at highest risk from COVID by 80-90%. These new treatment options will complement the medicines already available – sotrovimab, a monoclonal antibody, and molnupiravir, an oral antiviral. Information for GPs is available in the letter issued by NHS England.
The policy also confirms that from 10 February, COVID in non-hospitalised patients can be confirmed by a PCR test OR lateral flow test (registered via gov.uk or 119). Patients using a positive lateral flow test result to access treatments are encouraged to use a PCR to support ongoing surveillance of COVID.
Digital NHS COVID Pass is now available to children aged 12 to 15
The NHS COVID Pass service is now available to 12-15 year olds, accessible via NHS.UK for those aged 12 and over, and the NHS App for those aged 13 and over. This is an addition to the letter service via 119 that was launched in December.
Both the digital (App and NHS.uk) and letter NHS COVID Pass are widely accepted for international travel. It provides a record of all COVID-19 vaccinations received, with the digital Pass showing evidence of recovery for 180 days following a positive test. International travellers should check the entry requirements of the country they are visiting as requirements for testing and vaccination can vary from country to country.
As well as accessing their NHS COVID Pass, the NHS App will allow 13 to 15 year olds to access other non-personalised services such as Health A-Z, organ donation and 111 online. The NHS App will withhold a child’s medical data unless they have undergone a Gillick competency assessment with a medical professional.
Staff engagement vaccine equalities webinar available on demand
A recording of our COVID-19 vaccine equalities webinar on engaging with staff to improve vaccine confidence, and health and wellbeing is now available on demand. For details of our future events and to book, please visit and join the COVID-19 Vaccine Equalities Connect and Exchange Hub.
Digital Read Service provides more accurate reading of Lateral flow test (LFT) results
The Digital Read Service offers a more accurate reading of your COVID-19 LFT results. It is highly sensitive and can identify asymptomatic cases. When you report your LFT results using a smartphone or tablet, the Digital Read service will automatically read your result from a photo of your test strip. The read process only takes around 20 seconds. To date, the service has processed more than 2 million test results.
General practice
Resumption of normal procedures and timescales
On 17 December several time limited changes were agreed with DHSC to help free up general practice teams to support delivery of the COVID-19 booster vaccine. These measures included:
- legislative changes to extend the period of self-certification for sickness from 7-28 days to reduce the need for fit notes;
- suspension of the re-certification requirements for existing prescription charge medical exemptions;
- an ask of shooting organisations to delay requests for new firearms licenses where possible; and
- a suspension of DVLA requests for medical evidence.
As planned, these changes have now all come to an end and all normal procedures and timescales should be adhered to again.
In addition the timeframe for processing COVID-19 vaccination medical exemption requests was changed from 10 days to the discretion of the practice and will be resuming back to the 10 days from next week.
Winter Access Fund advanced telephony goes live
The MS Teams Outbound call system is now live for all practices who have requested it through the Winter Access Fund. Practices with the additional functionality installed will see a phone symbol on the left side of their Teams window - simply click it to bring up a phone keypad and then enter the number you're calling. Further help, training guides and videos can be found online. You can request the system by emailing the team.
General practice access routes campaign resources
Resources and guidance to help practices communicate with patients about the best ways of getting in touch with them when they need help are available for download.
The general practice access routes campaign resources, developed with practices and patient groups, aims to help patients understand the different ways they can request help from their GP practice – either by phone or visiting in person, or by completing a form on the practice’s website, and explains how the practice will manage the request and contact the patient in response.
A campaign toolkit guides practices through all the materials. Other materials include posters, leaflets, social media graphics and a range of easy read and alternative formats. Translations in a range of languages are also now available.
GP complaints training March 2022
Following the success of the GP Complaints Training Programme last year, two further GP Complaints workshops have been scheduled covering the East of England area.
These 3 hour workshops are free and are designed to support you and your practice team in handling complaints effectively. Specifically, they will cover the NHS Complaints Regulations including how to acknowledge, investigate and respond, and how complaints fit in with CQC, PHSO and GMC requirements.
AM and PM sessions are available on:
- 10 March 2022 - The Bull Hotel, Westgate, Peterborough PE1 1RB
- 11 March 2022 - Ipswich Town Football Club, Portman Rd, Ipswich IP1 2DA
To book a place, please email the complaints training team.
Paediatric pulse oximeters – training webinars
Four thousand paediatric pulse oximeters have now been distributed to GP practices to support the assessment of children with respiratory conditions over the winter period.
Masimo, the supplier of the Rad-G with Temperature pulse oximeters, are hosting six, 30-minute training webinars between now and the end of February.
They will provide an overview of the equipment, device features and accessories, how to take measurements and how to clean the device. It will be open for questions at the end. To book onto a session, please visit the NHS @home FutureNHS platform.
Community pharmacy
New posts to support the implementation of Community Pharmacy Clinical Services
From April 2022, two years of funding has been made available from the Pharmacy Integration Fund to recruit staff who will provide hands on support in Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) and NHS Trusts.
Each ICS will be able to establish an ICS Community Pharmacy Clinical Lead and programme support for NHS Trusts. Reporting to the ICS chief pharmacist, and working with other senior pharmacy, other clinical and managerial leadership across the system, these new roles will embed community pharmacy clinical services locally and ensure the required level of clinical assurance and monitoring is established as part of ICS functions going forward.
Funded places available before March 2022: Independent Prescriber Training
As part of emerging NHS Pharmacy Integration Programme education and training development offers, funded places are available for Independent Prescribing before March 2022.
This is an initial offer for pharmacists who are already in a position to apply and meet the eligibility criteria and meets the requirement to progress this training as early as possible for community pharmacists and employers who have signalled, they are ready to proceed.
For those pharmacists who are not in a position to apply for this offer, we would encourage you to prepare to apply for the main round of funded Independent Prescriber training that will be available from Autumn 2022. Find out more about this offer and eligibility criteria.
Dentistry
Your NHS dentistry and oral health update
The latest issue of Your NHS dentistry and oral health update, shared on 1 February, is available to read online now.
Primary care
NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS)
The NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) is an advanced service in the NHS Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF). Currently taking referrals from NHS 111 and GP practices, the service connects patients who have minor illness symptoms or require an urgent supply of a medicine with a community pharmacy.
The service helps ensure that patients see the right healthcare professional in a timely fashion and can free up capacity for patients with higher acuity needs. You can find out more about the service and what the data tells us so far in this new blog.
The NPA and PCPA have also produced a series of films on getting the most out of CPCS. These include a conversation with Dr Farzana Hussain and top tips on getting CPCS ‘going’, getting it ‘growing’ and keeping it ‘ongoing’.
Healthy weight coach eLearning programme research
The Healthy weight coach eLearning programme is for staff working in primary care networks, healthcare practices and pharmacies, to become a healthy weight coach. The role is to engage and support people living with overweight or obesity to make positive changes to their health and health behaviours with the aim of promoting a healthier weight.
Dr Stuart Flint, University of Leeds, and his team are leading on the research to evaluate the content of the Healthy weight coach eLearning programme. The research will examine the impact the programme is having on the knowledge and confidence of staff as well as to gather insights from those involved in the management of healthy weight coaches.
Get in touch if you are interested in participating in this research or want to find out more. The deadline for participation is the 28 February 2022.
Virtual wards enabled by technology: a multidisciplinary eLearning programme
Working with Health Education England, we have launched an eLearning programme on virtual wards, to support doctors, nurses, and allied professionals in the use of technology to provide safe, acute-level care to patients at home. Complete the eLearning and gain an understanding of implementing and running a virtual ward enabled technology. If you have any questions about virtual wards more broadly, please contact the virtual ward team.
Share your views to ensure primary care is fully integrated into Integrated Care Systems (ICSs)
We are eager to hear from primary care colleagues about best practice already happening across the country, and on social media, where primary care is fully integrated into ICSs.
This will inform the work that Dr Claire Fuller, GP and Chief Executive of Surrey Heartlands, is leading to understand how primary care can best be supported within the emergent Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) to meet the health needs of people in their local areas – focusing on practical next steps ICSs can take as they assume a statutory footing from July.
This video offers further information.
Live challenge: supporting people waiting for hip and knee replacement operations
#SolvingTogether is a programme created to capture, assess, test ideas that can support elective recovery, initiated by Tim Ferris, Director of Transformation for NHS England and NHS Improvement. A prototype challenge for #SolvingTogether is live: many people are facing long waits for knee or hip replacement operations; anyone can add ideas and comments on how to support people to stay as well as possible while waiting, and vote for other people's ideas. Visit SolvingTogether and join in the conversation on Twitter.
Next Generation GP Podcast - Episode 25 with Don Berwick
The Next Generation GP leadership programme is a monthly podcast, interviewing leaders in the NHS and beyond. The latest episode is an interview with Jeremy Hunt, and covers his time as health secretary, regrets of the junior doctor strikes, and his thoughts on the future of primary care.
Extra 500 people with complex health issues are supported thanks to Population Health Management
500 people with complex health problems made almost 450 fewer visits to A&E or stays on a hospital ward thanks to a proactive Population Health Management (PHM) approach. The hospital support needed by the group of patients in Wokingham, part of Buckingham, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICS, dropped dramatically after linked datasets and analytical approaches such as risk stratification were used by GP teams to define those most in need.
A multi-disciplinary team of doctors, matrons, social care, occupational therapists and social prescribers worked together to personalise their care. They offered enhanced health checks and assessments but also social support including help with shopping, exercise and lifestyle issues. Join the PHM Academy to see the full PHM Case Study Series including short reads and infographics on each PHM project
Upcoming events and webinars
NHS Pension Response – Additional Seminar Dates for February 2022
Pensions Tax (staff aged 50+, multi-regional):
Pensions and Flexible Working (Staff aged 50+ multi-regional):
8 February, 10.30am – 12pm. Delivering a Net Zero NHS – Reducing the environmental impact of asthma inhaler
9 February, 9.30am. The APPG for Respiratory Health: Improving Asthma Outcomes in the UK - One Year On
16 February, 1pm – 2pm. Diabetes, obesity and lipids
16 February, 1.30pm – 2.30pm. SPLW Series: New Link Workers
17 February, 1.30pm – 3pm. Ensuring vaccinations are accessible to paid and unpaid carers and people with long term conditions
2 March, 1.30pm – 2.30pm. SPLW Series: Developing your SPLW workforce
2 March, 2pm – 3pm. PCC support - open dental contracting surgeries
3 March, 1.30pm - 3pm. Vaccinating the under 30s from underserved communities
Link of the Week
