Somerset LMC Weekly Update Friday 15 June 2018
Date sent: Friday 15 June 2018
Sent to Somerset GPs and Practice Managers
- Somerset LMC Summer Newsletter - link to newsletter
- GP Practices Housebound Scheme – Shingles vaccination
- Carrying medicines abroad
- Child Heath Information Service Data Sharing Agreement
- GP Partnership Review blog
- Emergency Hormonal Contraception (EHC)
- New UK-wide LMC/GPC Trainers' List server.
GP Practices Housebound Scheme – Shingles vaccination Somerset Partnership has written to practices offering to give the shingles vaccine to housebound patients in return for splitting the fee – the practice will receive £5.03 per patient. Details of how to take part in this voluntary scheme are in the attached letter. SomPar might be able to offer a similar scheme for influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations between September and December. In the first year this offer may be restricted to patients on the active caseload of the community team. To gauge the level of interest SomPar is asking for contact using the email address below before 22nd June 2018. It would be helpful to know if practices are interested in signing up patients on the active caseload of the community nurses, patients who are not on the caseload and/or patients in residential homes. Details of this scheme will be confirmed by 30th June. Contact James Bolt on phcontractssouthwest@nhs.net
Carrying medicines abroad The BBC reported that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is advising holidaymakers to see their GPs to check if any of their prescribed medication contained controlled drugs, to avoid falling foul of local laws when travelling abroad. The advice was obviously been made without any thought of the serious consequences it could have on the ability of those with a real need to see their GP to be able to do so. If patients are concerned about taking medication abroad they should visit their local community pharmacy who are ideally placed to provide the information that is needed and can also advise on a wide range of travel-related health issues. GPC has raised concerns directly with the FCO and were informed that they will be amending their website accordingly.
Child Heath Information Service Data Sharing Agreement: In May the LMC advised practices to hold fire on signing the data sharing agreement (DSA) with the new CHIS as the Regional LMC meeting, after a presentation from the CHIS, had some reservations about it. The deadline is 2nd July. Most of our concerns were about the nature of the data extraction which was extensive owing to NHSE choosing to not continue to support updates to MIQUEST. The CHIS felt that they had a solution to the safe storage of the additional information and have recently assured us of their being compliant with GDPR. We noted that practices in the SE of England had signed up to the DSA without adverse consequences. Dr Harry Yoxall, who was dealing with this matter earlier in the year, has given us his opinion which was that he felt that the DSA was unlikely to be improved upon and so the LMC's advice is that practices can sign up to it. However the LMC cannot give definitive legal advice and practices with continuing concerns should take separate professional advice before making their own decision.
GP Partnership Review blog The independent review into the future of GP partnership which Jeremy Hunt initiated has now begun its work and will be visiting GPs, practices, and commissioners across the country to help inform its work. Dr Nigel Watson, the chair of the independent review, has written an initial blog which you can read here . Dr Watson, who is a GP in Lymington, Hampshire and who leads Wessex LMCs, was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Emergency Hormonal Contraception (EHC): From Somerset County Council. From June 2018 there will be some changes to the service providing EHC through community pharmacies commissioned by SCC. The service currently provides Levonorgestrel (Levonelle) on a Patient Group Direction (PGD) free of charge to all women presenting to participating pharmacies within 72 hours of unprotected sexual intercourse. Following updated guidance from the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health (FSRH) the service will be expanded to include provision of Ulipristal Acetate (ellaOne), which is demonstrated to be more effective for up to 120 hours post unprotected sexual intercourse. To accommodate the provision of ulipristal acetate (and guidance from FSRH regarding the need for a double dose of levonorgestrel for women with a high BMI) the provision of free EHC will be limited to women up to the age of 25 in common with most other areas in the South West. National and local evidence shows that women under the age of 25 are most at risk of unplanned pregnancy and poor sexual health and so this will enable the provision of the most effective treatment to those women with the highest need. Women aged 25 years or over will be encouraged to purchase EHC over the counter OR to seek help from other sources including Somerset Integrated Sexual Health Service (SWISH) or primary care BUT a discretionary clause in the PGD will allow the Pharmacist to supply EHC to women aged 25 or over if there are concerns about their ability to pay or seek help in a timely manner.
Pharmacists will continue to inform women that the Copper Intrauterine Device is the most effective form of emergency contraception and signpost to providers. Somerset County Council continues to invest in the provision of long acting reversible contraception and training for healthcare professionals and will be running a proactive campaign alongside this change to the service encouraging women to take responsibility for their own health and wellbeing and plan their contraceptive needs with a health professional.
New UK-wide LMC/GPC Trainers' List server. To assist the BMA to represent our Trainers, Educational supervisors and undergraduate teachers better it has set up a new list server and has asked LMCs to let member Practices and Sessional educators know that they welcome to join. In particular the BMA envisages that our discussions will potentially provide it with evidence for negotiations for pay uplifts for educational roles.
To join the electronic discussion group please email Karen Day directly at kday@bma.org.uk . She will then send out the terms and conditions if not already accepted via another list server.
Kind Regards
Somerset LMC
TEL: 01823 331428
Fax:01823 338561
General Practice in Somerset Great Place Great Potential
We have updated our privacy policies on both the Somerset LMC and Somerset GP Education trust websites.
Attached file: 2018_19_Somerset_GPPracticesHouseboundScheme.pdf
