Somerset LMC Weekly Update Friday 10th August 2018
Date sent: Friday 10 August 2018
All Somerset GPs and Practice Managers This and previous updates can be found here
- Children and Adults Safeguarding Audit
- Inhalers
- News from the performance Advisory Group (PAG)
- LD Health Checks
- RCGP Review of 5 Year GPFV
- Docman Incident
- Sessional GP Newsletter
- New NHS Body
Children and Adults Safeguarding Audit We have now reviewed both audit templates which will be sent to practices by the CCG in their bulletin next week, The children's template is relatively simple to complete, questions 3.4.5 in the Adult audit relate to the national contract requirement which the CCG have to include although they may not be applicable to your practice, the CCG agreed to state "where applicable" in each of these, and therefore you may not be able to submit any detail. The CCG have also agreed to extend the deadline for submission to the 30th September.
Inhalers The Department of Health and Social care has been alerted by AstraZeneca to a supply problem with Alvesco inhalers. Depending on the strength, resupply is not anticipated until mid-September 2018 (Alvesco 160) and mid-October (Alvesco 80). Astra-Zeneca has sent out a letter to customers but could not suggest an alternative. GP readers will be interested to learn that this is an inhaled corticosteroid (ciclesonide) for use in asthma from 12 years and older.
News From PAG (A digest of learning from recent cases): A reminder not to prescribe codeine containing products to breastfeeding mothers as there is a potential risk of harm to the baby. Any patient with a painful red eye needs an examination of visual acuity and pupillary reflex recorded or refer to ACES. Contact lens wearers with a painful red eye need ophthalmology referral as there is a risk of corneal ulcers; do not prescribe chloramphenicol because of risk of Pseudomonas infection. All breaches of confidentiality are always taken very seriously and the GMC will be notified: a primary care doctor working in another role looked up a patient’s record out of interest, shared the knowledge with a family member which led to a complaint.
Guidance for inclusion on GP learning disability register: Colleagues will have seen the welcome news in the Somerset CCG GP Bulletin on 6th August that patients with learning disabilities who are not on the local authority LD register but who would benefit from an annual health check can now have one under the terms of the LD DES. Dr Amelia Randle who leads for the CCG on LD has also agreed that we clarify that the opening statement in the bulletin should have read “GPs need to be aware that they are currently required to offer an annual health check on all learning disabled patients aged 14 years and over on the GP learning disability register” the word “offer” replacing “undertake” in the original. The development here is that practices who identify patients with LD according to the Valuing People: A New Strategy for Learning Disability definition can add them to their own LD register and if an annual health check is taken up payment will be forthcoming under the LD DES. Inclusion in a practice LD register will not, of course, convey any eligibility for other services provided by the local authority or SomPar.
RCGP Review of GP Forward View: From the Executive summary. “The General Practice (GP) Forward View was a landmark. For years, general practice had seen its share of health spend decline while, at the same time, contending with increasingly pressing challenges. The publication of the GP Forward View in England in 2016 represented a new approach to general practice, with the interests of GPs and their patients at the heart of the proposals. A significant injection of funding alongside the expansion of the primary care workforce was urgently needed. Two years on, however, an urgent overhaul of the GP Forward View is required. There were not enough doctors working in general practice when the GP Forward View was published. Now, there are even fewer. This is a fundamental problem and while it persists many of the other commitments in the GP Forward View cannot achieve the impact they were designed to. Without enough GPs, excessive workload remains a major problem, exacerbating the pressures that are causing doctors to leave the profession. Short-staffed general practices are not in a position to bid for new funding, investigate opportunities to change processes or seek to extend the offers they are making to their patients. Therefore, despite good intentions, the ambitions of the GP Forward View are at risk.”
Docman Incident Practices using Docman will have received the alert from NHSE yesterday on the incident which could have affected patient records while using Version 7, The GPC has made it clear that this is obviously a seriously concerning situation and they are pressing NHS England to urgently ascertain the scale of the problem, and crucially establish whether patients have been put at risk. Plans to address the issue must immediately be put in place, and practices must be adequately resourced to manage the additional workload this involves. This is clearly the latest in a number of examples of patients and GPs bearing the brunt of technological failings which is not acceptable.
Our Local NHSE team are keen to support practices and are sending out a communication in their update today any problems e mail england.primarycaremedical@nhs.net or if it is in connection with running the software the SCWCSU GP IT team can also support the practices.
New NHS body: Colleagues will be familiar with various NHS organisations including NHS Digital (NHSD), NHS Improvement (NHSI) as well as NHS England (NHSE). A senior GP has suggested combining them all to make one lean, unified and streamlined group called NHSDIE.
Kind Regards
Jill
Jill Hellens
Executive Director
Somerset LMC
TEL: 01823 331428
Fax:01823 338561
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