Primary Care Bulletin - this week's round-up

12 January 2022

Dear colleagues,

I (Ed Waller) am pleased to announce that Dr Ursula Montgomery who is currently our Interim GP Transformation Director will be taking over from me as the Interim Director for Primary Care next month. We wanted to extend our congratulations to Ursula who is a GP by background and will bring a wealth of expertise to the role. I will be moving on from my role within primary care and taking on the role of Deputy Chief Financial Officer for Strategic Finance here at NHS England and NHS Improvement.  

Congratulations also to David Webb who will take over from Dr Keith Ridge CBE as the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for NHS England and NHS Improvement. David will be the Senior Responsible Officer for reducing inappropriate prescribing of antibiotic medicines as part of efforts to tackle antimicrobial resistance and the programme to address overprescribing in the NHS. We look forward to working with him.   

Last week the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) recorded record levels of flu jab uptake in those 65 and over. This is testament to the hard work of health professionals across the country and particularly in primary care, in rolling out the biggest free flu drive in healthcare history, in addition to delivering an incredible coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination programme. 

This week also marks the one year anniversary of the COVID-19 vaccination programme in community pharmacy. Community pharmacy teams have been vital part of making the vaccine programme such a success and we look forward to celebrating this key milestone on Thursday.  

Staff sickness absence  

NHS England and NHS Improvement have improved the COVID-19 staff absence tracker to assist NHS organisations including primary care contractors in managing their COVID-19 related staff absence. The user interface has been improved to make it as easy to use and not place unnecessary burden onto frontline primary care teams and all primary care organisation and contractors have been included in the database. 

It is essential providers inform their local commissioner when the delivery of services is compromised by staff absences, whether or not attributed to a COVID-19 outbreak and if local systems are not already collecting information on the extent and impact of staff absences through their locally agreed processes, we request this is put in place as a priority. 

It would help us greatly if those who are absent also reported through the tracker so we can get an overall picture of primary care absences. The tracker can be completed by either the member of staff themselves, their line manager, or others such as relatives as a “guest”. The tracker should only take a few minutes to complete and it requests some essential information.  

General Practices teams should select their CCG area in the ‘NHS Organisation’ field. Typing ‘CCG’ in the ‘NHS Organisation’ field will make it quicker and easier to locate your CCG in the drop-down list. You can then select your GP Practice in the ‘NHS Site’ field. 

Community Pharmacies, Dental Practices and Opticians should select their NHS England and Improvement Region in the ‘NHS Organisation’ field.  Typing ‘REGION’ in the ‘NHS Organisation’ field will make it quicker and easier to locate your region from the drop down list. You can then select your Pharmacy, Dental practice or Optician location in the ‘NHS Site’ field. As there a large number of providers across the region, you can also type the postcode of the site at which you work in the ‘NHS Site’ field which will make it quicker and easier to locate that site at which you work. 

Nikki and Ed

COVID-19 updates

Isolation following a positive COVID-19 test

Following UK Health Security Agency guidance that confirmatory PCR tests are to be temporarily suspended for positive lateral flow test results we have issued a summary letter which applies to all staff including substantive clinical and non-clinical roles, bank staff, contractors and suppliers; students working in all facilities, settings and organisations delivering NHS care and volunteers working in settings with patients.

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.

Vaccination as a condition of deployment for all healthcare workers   

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) announced on the 9 November 2021 that individuals undertaking CQC regulated activities in England must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 no later than 1 April 2022. The regulations will apply equally across the public (NHS) and independent health sector.

Thursday 6 January marked the start of the 12-week grace period that allows unvaccinated individuals to have had their first dose by 3 February 2022, in order to have received their second dose by the 1 April 2022 deadline.

NHS England and Improvement will issue phase two guidance in the coming days which will focus on the implementation of the new regulations, including a redeployment framework and advice regarding formal steps for staff who remain unvaccinated on 1 April 2022.   

Information for line managers and staff can be found here and assets are available on NHS CommsLink to encourage teams to take up the COVID-19 vaccine offer and/or get their booster. 

There are also national health and wellbeing resources including winter workforce preparedness and the Leadership Academy’s #ProjectM and #Winterwarmers which provide practical guidance for line managers on how to ensure our NHS people are well-supported. If you have any queries, please contact the people team.

Data management and coding for patients with ongoing Covid symptoms

Whilst most people feel better from COVID-19 infection within a few days or weeks of their first symptoms, for some, symptoms can last longer and may lead to Post-COVID-19 syndrome (often referred to as Long Covid).

Data is critical to enable us to learn more about this new condition, to help inform clinical management and service planning and design. We would therefore encourage colleagues to use the following core SNOMED codes:

• Ongoing symptomatic COVID-19 (1325181000000106): 4-12 weeks after infection
• Post-COVID-19 syndrome (1325161000000102): 12 weeks plus after infection

The NHS has established 90 specialist Post-Covid Services across England. After ruling out alternative diagnoses, clinicians should consider referring people to a specialist Post-Covid service any time from 4 weeks after the start of acute COVID-19. Typically, referral after 12 weeks is appropriate given high rates of spontaneous recovery with self-management advice up until that time point.

Ensuring that your COVID-19 vaccination service is accessible

Sites have a responsibility to ensure that accessible information about vaccination is available, as per the Accessible Information Standard. People with hearing impairments have the right to British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation support, through either on-site BSL support, or remote BSL support. BSL support is now available via the SignVideo app, which is available to download and use, by selecting the NHS 119 button located within the SignDirectory available in the SignVideo app. User's existing InterpreterNow credentials will work in the new SignVideo app (the InterpreterNow app will no longer be available to download). BSL users who need a BSL Interpreter should download and use the new SignVideo app. BSL users do not need to register with the new SignVideo app to use the 119 BSL service.

People who are visually impaired have the right to information in an accessible format such as large print, audio and braille. You can order information about vaccination, boosters and what to expect after vaccination in a range of accessible formats.

COVID-19 Vaccination Programme – workspace

General practice

General Practice patient survey

The 2022 GP Patient Survey launched on Monday 10 January, with fieldwork continuing for three months. Last year, more than 850,000 people gave feedback on around 6,700 GP practices across England. The survey is a key source of information about primary care in England. Due to the pandemic, it is more important than ever that we hear about people’s experiences of using local GP and health services. 

You can help to promote the survey by displaying a downloadable poster on practice premises or talking about it in social media. For more information or to request promotional resources please contact: england.insight-queries@nhs.net. 

GP contract

The GP contract documents for 2021/22 have been published to support the implementation of changes to General Medical Services (GMS) contractual arrangements.

General practice - latest updates

Primary care

Physical health checks for people living with severe mental illness

In collaboration with Public Health England in the North West, we are pleased to share this resource that presents a partnership approach to improving physical health checks for people living with severe mental illness.

Through data and intelligence, a summary of key strategic drivers and policy commitments and accessible check lists, the resource aims to provide guidance on the prioritised action required to prevent premature mortality, morbidity and inequalities experienced by people with severe mental illness.

Upcoming events and webinars

January – March 2022 (multiple dates). CPCS workshops with RPS & RCGP

13 January, 12pm – 1pm. COVID-19 vaccine & ethnic minority communities

13 January, 5pm – 6pm. General Practice webinar

17 January, 12pm – 1pm. Best practice: health and social care working with people experiencing homelessness

18 January, 10am – 11.30am. Personal health budget community of practice

18 January, 12pm – 1pm. Honour-based Abuse, Child Marriage and Virginity Testing

19 January, 12pm – 1pm. Transitional Safeguarding

19 January, 1pm – 1.30pm. Supporting practice nurses and AHPs to recognise suspected lung cancer symptoms

19 January, 1.30pm – 2.30pm. Social Prescribing Link Worker Learning and Development Webinar Series: Tackling Health Inequalities

20 January, 12pm – 1pm. Sexual abuse and assault

21 January, 12pm – 1pm. Online Abuse by Staff with Indecent Images

2 February, 9am – 12pm. Digital Health Innovation Collaborative – free online event

Link of the Week

Green impact for health toolkit