Somerset LMC Weekly Update Friday 22 June 2018
Date sent: Friday 22 June 2018
Sent to Somerset GPs and Practice Managers This and Previous updates can be found here
- All Tosh and Cogs The latest Blog from Dr Nick Bray LMC Chairman
- General Practice Data Return
- Tier 2 visa caps for overseas doctors
- Review of gross negligence manslaughter
- GP trainee recruitment
- Focus on quality indicators
- Reimbursement for locum cover for sickness
- Workforce Minimum Data Set – June 2018 extraction
- St Margaret's Hospice - links to services
- RCGP Curriculum Consultation
- Somerset GP Board Meeting 20 June
General Practice Data Return: The CCG has processed the first data returns from eight practices serving over 69,000 patients in Somerset. The population of the whole county is about 530,000. The preliminary results from May (which had two bank holiday Mondays) are fascinating. There were 9,875 telephone calls and 12,990 face-to-face appointments with GPs who also fielded 4,959 telephone consultations and made 659 home visits. Nurses saw 6,838 patients and HCAs 6,259 in the 25 days studied. On Saturdays GPs in those practices saw 59 patients. As more practices come forward to help with this voluntary scheme we will soon, for the first time, have some really powerful data to present to the commissioners and those reviewing health & social care.
Tier 2 visa caps for overseas doctors: We welcome the change in position of the Home Office that overseas doctors and nurses will be removed from the Tier 2 visa cap. This arbitrary cap prevented thousands of non-EEA doctors from taking up jobs in the UK.
Review of gross negligence manslaughter: The findings of the review into gross manslaughter (GNM) in healthcare conducted by Sir Norman Williams have been published. The review was set up to look at wider patient safety and the impact of concerns among healthcare professionals that simple errors could result in prosecution for GNM. In response, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA council Chair, commented “As we have seen with recent cases, when mistakes occur in the medical environment, the outcome can be tragic in leading to an unexpected death, with extreme distress both for grieving families who have lost loved ones and to doctors and other healthcare professionals who may lose their career as a result.”
GP trainee recruitment: Health Education England (HEE) have announced they have recruited more GP trainees than ever before, and they expect to hit their target of 3,250 to start training this year. However, Professor Ian Cumming, CEO of HEE, told the NHS Confederation conference in Manchester that they expect around 1,200 of the 3,000 GPs that qualify annually to have left the Health Service within five years. This is a sign of the workload pressures many new GPs find themselves exposed to and something that must be addressed as part of the wider recruitment and retention strategies.
Focus on quality indicators: The BMA has produced a Focus on Quality Indicators Briefing to provide background and context in preparation for the forthcoming negotiations on the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) in England and the potential changes following the current QOF review, led by NHS England. The review brought together key stakeholders to analyse current evidence and other incentive schemes, with the intention of delivering proposals on the future of QOF. The report has highlighted, and NHS England agrees, that a significant proportion of QOF funding is core income for practices and is an essential resource used for the employment of practice staff, and is already committed to delivering important practice activities. The briefing can be accessed here.
Reimbursement for locum cover for sickness: Following several requests from GPs and LMCs for clarification of reimbursement for locum cover for sickness, NHS England has confirmed to GPC England that where a GP is signed off sick as part of a phased return then the SFE entitles the practice to locum reimbursement where the requirements under the SFE are met. Where a GP is not signed off sick but has agreed a phased return, or does not meet the requirements of the SFE, this would be a discretionary matter. Practices are encouraged to quote this clarification from the Head of Primary Care Commissioning (Medical Services) if they are having problems with this issue when liaising with the CCG.
Workforce Minimum Data Set – June 2018 extraction: The next regular extraction of practice workforce data will take place on Saturday 30th June, so it is recommended that practices have completed updates by the end of the day on Friday 29th June. NHS Digital will be sending out a reminder to practices on 19th June. This is important information that helps us to highlight and respond to the recruitment and retention crisis impacting general practice, and we would encourage all practices to take part so we have as accurate a picture as possible.
RCGP Curriculum Consultation: The RCGP is currently undertaking it’s curriculum consultation to develop the new & updated curriculum for the RCGP. The consultation area of the RCGP website can be found here This consultation is a significant chance to help influence the future of the RCGP curriculum.
Somerset GP Board Meeting 20 June. Before last Wednesday’s formal meeting of the SGPB, those who were able held a pre-meet, at which we discussed in more detail the targeted use of the transformation monies across the county, concentrating on how we can develop the concept of ‘Neighbourhood Care Teams’, building on work done by the CCG and also public health colleagues. If this is approved by the CCG we will then do more detailed costings in the next version. We spent a significant chunk of the meeting itself discussing this with Michael Bainbridge and Will Harris, and hearing about the Primary Care component of the ongoing Health and Care Strategy review. The CCG are placing an emphasis of continuity of care as an important principle, and we will be discussing further what this could mean in practice.
We had updates on the roll-out of the Treatment Escalation Plan (TEP) across the county, and on the recent bid process for the OOH and Urgent Care service. The SGPB has produced a document listing a set of principles that we believe are important when considering a new provider (locally based, evidence of local engagement and links with existing structures amongst others).
We had our regular updates about recent meetings of the various boards covering emergency and elective care, and noted the development of an ‘Interim Rapid Response Service’, which should go live in November. The aim is to provide the GP with an alternative to hospital admission where this could be avoided by a short burst of integrated support, and will be accessed via SPL. More on this anon. We had an update on the latest financial situation across the county, there having been several meetings between NHSE, the Trusts and the CCG recently. We had our usual reports on the work being done (headed by the LMC) on GP retention and recruitment in Somerset, and marvelled at the latest Somerset GP Career Plus video on YouTube (I’m not sure widely available yet). We discussed feedback from the 100-day projects that we have involvement with (in ENT, urology and cardiology), and found one of our number to attend a hospital communications summit at Musgrove next month. Next meeting- 18th July
Kind Regards
Somerset LMC
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Attached file: Focus-on-GP-quality-indicators.pdf
