Somerset LMC Weekly Update Friday 24th January 2020
Date sent: Friday 24 January 2020
Sent to all Somerset GPs and Practice Managers This and previous updates are available here
- New from CHIS (Child Health Information Service) By Chris Ellis, Operational Head of CHIS South West
- Coronavirus guidance for Primary Care
- Flu TIA coding error
- Advice on Vaccines in the NHS annual seasonal flu vaccination programme and reimbursement guidance for 2020/21
- Ardens-QMasters
- Help Us, Help You: Pharmacy Advice has launched
New from CHIS (Child Health Information Service) By Chris Ellis, Operational Head of CHIS South West: Practices will be aware of the changes to the PCV immunisation schedule will apply to children born after 1.1.2020 and affects their immunisations at 12 weeks old. This means it will appear on scheduled lists week commencing 24/2/2020. CHIS will update the scheduling system but there may initially be some children making appointments for the week commencing 24/2/2020 and soon after who aren’t part of the relevant cohort. i.e. they were born before 1.1.20. As with all changes to the schedule please ask immunisers to check the child’s age carefully to ensure they are part of the correct cohort before immunising.
Earlier this year all South West practices started to receive a weekly list of children moving into “Out of Circulation” (OOC) and will soon receive a quarterly update of children still OOC. CHIS would like to thank practices for the updates they have been sending back enabling children’s records to be updated or Refusals / No Consent to be put in place.
In the next quarter we will start sending practices lists of children whose immunisation scheduling has been Suspended or where Consent has been withdrawn. We would appreciate responses in the same way as for the OOC lists to confirm that these settings are still correct. This is important since children with a Suspension or with Refusal / No Consent on CHIS will not be invited for immunisations.
The Immunisation List sent from CHIS each week will soon include a column to highlight if a baby is under 6 months and has moved into the area. CHIS place a temporary suspension on scheduling for most children who move in for 35 days to allow time for an immunisation history to be obtained from the previous CHIS. Due to the timescales for rotavirus immunisations it is not appropriate to delay these younger babies so they are highlighted to practice nurses in order for them to check the immunisations history when they see them. This was felt by the practices we consulted as being the safest option.
Coronavirus guidance for Primary Care: Public Health England has now published guidance for primary care to reduce the risk of spread of infection during and following consultation with a suspected case of the Corona virus (WN-CoV). The main principles are:
- identify potential cases as soon as possible
- prevent potential transmission of infection to other patients and staff
- avoid direct physical contact, including physical examination, and exposures to respiratory secretions
- isolate the patient, obtain specialist advice and determine if the patient is at risk of WN-CoV infection, and inform the local Health Protection Team (HPT)
If WN-CoV infection is seen in the UK, it is most likely to occur in travellers that have recently returned from Wuhan city in China.
All the coronavirus guidance is available here.
Flu TIA coding error: NHS Digital has emailed practices about an error with the Seasonal Flu 2019/20 extraction where the codes for patients in under 65 at-risk groups with TIA were inadvertently removed from the business rules. This means that these patients are not being included in the payment extraction despite vaccines having been given and coded appropriately. It is anticipated that the number of missed payments will be low, as it is likely that most people will have other risk factors that are captured by the current business rules. There will be a single collection in April 2020 for payment in 2020/21.
Practices will need to accept the service offer (as for any other service), when it is made available on CQRS. Practices are also encouraged to double check that all patients under 65 with TIA have been offered the flu vaccine this season. Read more here.
Advice on Vaccines in the NHS annual seasonal flu vaccination programme and reimbursement guidance for 2020/21: GPs and Pharmacists should consider the use of the vaccines below;
- Adjuvanted trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (aTIV) for over 65 years and over. Please note that QIVc is also suitable for 65 years and over if aTIV is not available and all stocks exhausted.
- Quadravalent influenza cell –culture vaccine (QIVc) in the first instance for at risk adults less than 65 years (including pregnant women). Quadravalent influenza egg-culture vaccine (QIVe) should also be considered as an alternative to QIVc for at risk adults aged less than 65 years and pregnant women.
- Quadravalent influenza cell – culture vaccine (QIVc) for at risk children aged 9 -17 years whom LAIV is unsuitable. Where QIVc is unavailable offer QIVe to at risk children aged 9-17 years whom LAIV is unsuitable.
- Live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) for children Centrally supplied free.
- QIVe for children aged 6 months to less than 9 years at-risk for whom there are contraindications for the use of LAIV Centrally supplied free.
NHS E&I will reimburse the following vaccines in 2020/21:
• aTIV for those aged 65 years and over
• QIVc for those aged 65 years and over (where aTIV is not available)
• QIVc and QIVe for those at-risk adults aged 18 to less than 65 years (including pregnant women) and at-risk children aged 9 to 17 years for whom LAIV is unsuitable and where locally procured vaccine stock has been used.
Ardens-QMasters: Ardens-QMasters has sent out a link to all practices this week containing some tips on how to maximise your QOF achievement. It includes a large number of resources and advice for QOF. At this time of the year they recommend you review these with your clinicians to ensure you are maximising your QOF point achievement and doing so efficiently.
Help Us, Help You: Pharmacy Advice has launched: NHS England and NHS Improvement have now launched Pharmacy Advice, the latest phase of the Help Us, Help You campaign.
The campaign encourages the public to ‘take the drama out of minor illnesses’, raising awareness of the services offered by pharmacies, and to position them as the first place to go to for clinical advice and treatment for minor health concerns.
Pharmacies and GP practices across England will automatically receive a campaign pack which will include posters, information, briefing sheets along with some other items: GP practices (main site)
Kind Regards
Jill
Jill Hellens
Executive Director
Somerset LMC
Crown Medical Centre, Venture Way, Taunton, TA2 8QY
Tel: (01823) 331 428
Fax: (01823) 338 561
www.somersetlmc.co.uk
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