Somerset LMC Weekly Update Friday 20th April 2018
Date sent: Friday 20 April 2018
All Somerset GPs and Practice Managers This and previous updates can be found here
- Data Protection officer (DPO) For GDPR
- Somerset GP Board Update
- OTC Meds and Schools
- Diabtetes My Way
- Data Collection
- Urgent same day appointments and SPL
- MenACWY vaccination of current Year13 students
- Reimbursement for Phased return to work
- CQC and undeliverable E mails
- QOF Guidance 18/19
- Top Tips and SPQS
Data Protection officer (DPO) For GDPR Practices will be aware that we have been in discussions with SPH regarding this role, after some research they have confirmed that it will be feasible for them to provide this for Somerset practices which is good news , there will be a small cost involved to fund the post of DPO for the County and they would be grateful initially if practices could express an interest in taking up this service, to rachel.stark1@nhs.net
The GDPR section of the website has been updated with a link to the GPC blog with templates and advice for practices
Somerset GP Board Update from meeting held on 18th April Topics discussed at this month’s Somerset GP Board meeting included:
Health and Care Strategy- CCG representatives attended the first half of the meeting to present this item. The GP Board has been asked to help develop a strategy for Primary Care across the county that whilst firmly grounded in reality, will form the basis for transformation funding. We discussed how we could develop our thinking on working at scale, improving links with community and other services, whilst recognising the stark reality of the workforce situation. We aim to have a paper ready by the middle of May which will be shared with Practices.
Countywide TEP- This has been formally rolled out this week. There is still some clarification needed about where this will sit on the IT systems, and how practitioners can be sure they are looking at the most recent version. We also discussed communication with the acute trusts, in particular how practices could be informed when patients have been admitted.
Out of Hours and Urgent Care- We discussed the importance of GPs feeding back on the CCG proposals regarding the Clinical Assessment Service, and that there might be a role for the GP Board in the future.
GP representation on Strategy working groups- There are still a couple of spaces to be filled (Maternity and paeds, planned care). Interested colleagues should contact the LMC office.
We discussed papers on Workforce, Transformation funding, and Working at Scale, and the work of the Turnaround Group. The next meeting is scheduled for May16th.
OTC Meds and Schools The CCG Prescribing & Medicines Management committee has asked the LMC to devise the linked letter (also available on the LMC website ) as a template to be used when a school or nursery has asked a parent or carer to get a prescription for an OTC drug so that it can be given whilst the child is at school or nursery. This is of course completely unnecessary as well as being a waste of GPs’ time. We are grateful to Wessex LMCs for providing the original text.
Diabetes My Way Colleagues will recall the My Diabetes My Way project which is being rolled out across Somerset. This online service enables diabetics to better manage their own condition using real time data as well as providing information about other useful resources. Sian Brammer, who is leading for the CCG on this, will be sending out information packs as the start date is now confirmed as May 1st. Practices are asked to do two things to make MDMW a success: to sign the data sharing agreement (without this they cannot extract the data from EMIS) and for all practice staff to tell patients about it to encourage them to sign up.
Data Collection The LMC has agreed with the CCG that there is a terrible deficit in data about primary care activity. We all know that we are busy but proving it is hard in a world where every attendance at MIU, ED or hospital admission is recorded. This lack of data means that we have a deficit in the sort of understanding necessary to make good commissioning decisions. For these reasons we encourage practices to take part in the data collection exercise which the CCG will detail in a forthcoming bulletin. The CCG is fully aware that this is extra work, the scheme is entirely voluntary, assistance is available to help with it and not all the data sets need be completed, the first concerning the number of phone calls received each day. The CCG deserves credit for its approach in this important matter. Please take part if you can.
Urgent same day appointments and SPL Colleagues will recall the difficulties which some have experienced with getting some urgent same day appointments where providers insist upon e-referral. Although we are grateful to Dr Andrea Trill at T&S for providing a solution to this we have been reminded that Somerset Primary Link already deals with same-day opthalmological and ENT referrals in exactly the same way as it does for other specialities.
MenACWY vaccination of current Year 13 students The advice circulated by teh screening and immunisation team indicated an incorrect date range, practices need to be aware that they should be targeting the current Year 13 pupils.
Reimbursement for phased return to work Following GPC intervention, NHS England has now confirmed that practices must be reimbursed under the SFE for cover for GPs on phased return for sickness. Reimbursement should include the cost of cover for all the sessions (up to the weekly ceiling) for which the GP is still absent, to maintain the normal GP cover. NHE England local teams should now be talking with CCGs where issues have been raised to rectify any misinterpretation of the SFE.
CQC and undeliverable E mails CQC have advised us that they are getting a few undeliverable messages as some practices may not have updated their details since moving to NHS.Net, apparently this is a simple process and we would advise practices to check that all details are up to date.
Top Tip and SPQS
SPQS The practice support team have developed a guide and templates for the 18/19 SPQS specification, we will be in a position to share these with you all next week
EMIS If practices log into their systems remotely to look at issues they may find that a warning box appears, this is a new firewall and the attached screen shot shows you the link to overcome this
Kind Regards
Jill
Jill Hellens
Executive Director
Somerset LMC
TEL: 01823 331428
Fax:01823 338561
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