Somerset LMC Weekly Update Friday 25th May 2018
Date sent: Friday 25 May 2018
All Somerset GPs and Practice Managers This and Previous E mails can be found here
- A Letter Between Friends- The latest Blog from LMC Chairman Dr Nick Bray
- Performance Advisory Group (PAG)
- Parkrun 9th June
- Somerset GP Career Plus
- UWE Post Graduate Courses
- Bulimia Study
- National Audit Office report on PCSE
- Diamorphine supplies
- Hot Topics Urgent Care Course for Somerset Clinicians
- GPC News May 2018
- LMC and SGPET Privacy Policy (Yes we have to do GDPR as well!)
Performance Advisory Group (PAG) a digest of advice from discussions of concerns and complaints brought to NHSE:
- the Induction & Refresher scheme is helping doctors get back into general practice after two years or more and anyone who has been out for less than two years but who feels they need additional support - contact Health Education England for further advice.
- A reminder about the Retainer Scheme, improved under the FYFV: any practice interested in a retained doctor should contact HEE. For more information: Here
- Sciatica is rare in teenagers and young adults and needs to be investigated: rare bone cancers can present this way especially with night pain.
- A recent Coroner’s report criticised a GP for not removing medication from a patient expressing suicidal ideas and also questioned the “robustness” of the referral made to mental health services. PAG felt that given time constraints (and the rarity of suicide) this was not something a GP would be expected to do routinely but agreed to share the information.
Doctors with cases to be discussed at PAG will be informed by letter which will be sent to the address on the GP Performers List so DO notify NHSE if you move house. The process is currently changing to a new online portal.
Parkrun From our esteemed Chairman: You might know about parkrun UK which is a national, and now international phenomenon, with thousands of people turning up on Saturday morning at 9am to run/walk/plod/limp around a 5km course in a very supportive atmosphere. There is a special 70 Year NHS parkrun taking place on June 9th (in Taunton, Yeovil, Burnham, Minehead, Shepton Mallet) which I found about following a text from a consultant colleague. I bet there’ll be loads of hospital colleagues there. I’m going to do it wearing a ‘GP in Somerset’ T-shirt (at least until they put the defib pads on). I thought it might be a good opportunity to raise the profile of Primary Care- I bet there are loads of our younger colleagues and other practice staff who do it anyway. If you take some photos and send to 07766 135221 or 07887 566510
See http://www.parkrun.org.uk/
Somerset GP Career Plus This Somerset Scheme designed by Somerset Primary Healthcare Ltd (SPH), Somerset CCG and Somerset LMC to help retain the current GP workforce has received national recognition, read the good news story here
UWE Post Graduate Courses Somerset CCG have received an allocation of funded places for specific courses for 2018/19, this survey will enable them to commission the correct courses for clinical staff and will ensure there is equity across the county, it would be helpful if Practice Managers could complete this on behalf of their practice.
Bulimia Study Dr Abhi Sharma is involved in this study and is struggling to get patient recruits, she would be happy for GPs to directly refer to her Abhilasha.Sharma@sompar.nhs.uk or to contact her on her mobile 0777501894, information on the study here
National Audit Office report on PCSE The National Audit Office has released a report on NHS England’s management of the PCSE contract with Capita. GPC has also launched a campaign, asking for all general practice staff members and individual GPs who have been negatively impacted by one or more of the service lines to sign the pledge. Despite GPC writing to NHS England numerous times to express disappointment that the operation of the service continues to fall short of an acceptable standard and calling for action to resolve the issues, this remains a daily challenge for practices and many sessional GPs. Therefore this campaign will be used to further demonstrate how far reaching the poor delivery of PCSE is on practice staff and show the Government the number of individuals demanding for the service level to be improved. Pledge your support
Diamorphine The Department of Health and Social Care and NHSE have been told of a manufacturing problem at one of their suppliers of Diamorphine 5mg and 10mg injection. The DHSC is working closely with one of the two suppliers, regulators and others to resolve quality problems at its German plant. Based on current usage and remaining stock, there is the potential for supplies of Diamorphine 5mg to be depleted week commencing 4 June and diamorphine 10mg injection week commencing 11 June. Further supplies are currently expected the week commencing 28 June. The DHSC has been working with national clinical leads and specialists to discuss alternatives. The UKMi has published guidance to help support this supply issue,available here:
The recommended alternative is morphine injection; the DHSC are in discussions with all the manufacturers to ensure that any additional demand can be met. Further information includes the Patient Safety Alert on high dose morphine and diamorphine available here . Also attached is patient information that has been developed by NHS England to support this medicine supply issue.
Recommended local actions:
- Please order responsibly during this time, in line with historical demand, and do not stock pile to avoid lengthening the stock out period.
- Review and share UKMi clinical guidance and engage with clinical colleagues to review / amend clinical guidance accordingly.
- Morphine 10mg injection will be available to cover the Diamorphine supply issue in June. Please only order extra stock of Morphine as Diamorphine injection becomes unavailable locally and do not stock pile.
LMC and SGPET Privacy Policy We have updated our privacy policies on both websites to comply with GDPR. We have also updated the GDPR area of the website with a sample privacy poster and Privacy Policies for practices.
Further Policies information and templates can be found on the GPC Blog here
Kind Regards
Jill
Jill Hellens
Executive Director
Somerset LMC
TEL: 01823 331428
Fax:01823 338561
General Practice in Somerset Great Place Great Potential
