Somerset LMC Weekly Update Friday 12th June 2020
Date sent: Friday 12 June 2020
Sent to all Somerset GPs and Practice Managers This and previous updates are available here
SGPET Covid weekly update with all online education can be found here
- "Do you know where your're going to"? Dr Karen Sylvester LMC Chairmans Vlog
- General Practices' Alert State
- Guidance and standard operating procedures summary by GPC England
- Test And Trace
- Covid Antibody Testing
- CQC Questions
- Consultant connect taking better photos for patients
- Setting up or improving your Document Workflow system in your practice
- Clinical negligence indemnity arrangements during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Electronic repeat dispensing (eDR) – England
- The Purple Book
- Can General Practice learn from the COVID 19 Pandemic?
- CHIS Update For Practice and Immunisations Nurses
- And Finally...
General Practices' Alert State: Somerset LMC’s assessment of General Practices’ Alert State for the period 5th June - Friday 12th June. You can follow this link for a more detailed assessment and an explanation of the General Practice Alert State system.
.The survey for this week is now open until Monday 15th at 7pm.
Test And Trace: Some of you may have seen the letter on 9th June regarding ‘Minimising nosocomial infections in the NHS’. This is an important document as it confirms that NHS staff are not exempt from the ‘Test and Trace’ scheme for COVID-19. As you will be aware this scheme aims to identify ‘close contacts’ of confirmed cases of COVID-19 and advise them to self-isolate for 14 days.
However it confirms that IF APPROPRIATE PPE IS WORN THEN YOU WILL NOT BE CLASSED AS A CLOSE CONTACT. The official definition of ‘close contact’ used if staff are not wearing PPE is as follows:
- having face-to-face contact with someone (less than 1 metre away)
- spending more than 15 minutes within 2 metres of someone
- travelling in a car or other small vehicle with someone (even on a short journey) or close to them on a plane
The LMC therefore advice ensuring that all clinical contacts are undertaken wearing full PPE and that strict social distancing measures are in place throughout the workplace to minimise the chances of staff needing to self-isolate under track and trace measures
Covid Antibody Testing You may have seen a recent letter from NHSe about antibody testing for NHS staff and patients and wonder when or if this is available locally?
There is a project group in place in Somerset looking at how to roll this test out, bearing in mind lab capacity for testing. The plan is to prioritise all NHS staff initially before it is extended to patients. The test is entirely voluntary and each person will need to sign a consent form. At present the clinical relevance of a positive test is unknown and would not alter clinical management or result in a change in behaviour away from national guidance. We are hoping to have the offer of the test available to primary care as soon as possible. As soon as an acceptable plan is in place we will let you know and the testing is likely to begin in a phased approach across PCNs.
In the meantime, please also be aware that antibody testing is not yet available to any patients.
CQC Questions: Further to our update on this last Friday a Somerset practice has fed back on their call with the inspector which in the main was fairly supportive. They were asked to go through an Emergency support framework, practices overdue a full inspection or those with which inspectors are already in contact after a recent one may wish to familiarise themselves with this.
Setting up or improving your Document Workflow system in your practice: Most GP's will probably agree that they receive a significant number of documents that they do not need to see. After appropriate coding by administrators, these documents could be directly filed or necessary tasks allotted . Such documents should be low risk and of little or no clinical significance. Please watch this webinar resented by Dr Daniel Berrio Galan (GP fellow) as an introduction to document flow, there are details of available slots to speak to Daniel for further information or support at the end of the presentation.
Clinical negligence indemnity arrangements during the COVID-19 pandemic: NHS Resolution has published guidance in relation to its indemnity schemes and claims management during the COVID-19 pandemic. General practice specific guidance aims to clarify how the management of claims interactions between general practice indemnity beneficiaries and NHS Resolution will proceed during the pandemic. It also provides answers the most common questions regarding Clinical Negligence Scheme for General Practice (CNSGP) indemnity cover under COVID-19 working arrangements.
Electronic repeat dispensing (eDR) – England: NHSEI has sent a letter to GPs and community pharmacists about the temporary suspension of the requirement for patient consent to use of the electronic repeat dispensing (eRD) system, until 30 June 2020. If GP practices have not already received a list of patients receiving electronic prescriptions, they should request a list of their registered patients that the NHS Business Services Authority has identified as potentially being suitable for eRD, based on recent medication history. Practices can request this by emailing nhsbsa.epssupport@nhs.net
The Purple Book: Practices will be aware that the Pink book was reinstated last year to share direct numbers and e mails within Somerset foundation Trust departments, at the same time a Purple book was created for practices to complete a similar form with as many direct contacts as possible to enable Trust staff to contact the appropriate number or e mail within each practice . If you haven’t already completed this online form or updated it recently we would encourage you to do so, it should only take a couple of minutes and will be great help for communications between the providers. This may also be a good time to remind you that in the daily information each practice receives on who has been admitted in the previous 24 hours, there is an email address to send any relevant information that may help that person’s care, if appropriate.
Can General Practice learn from the COVID 19 Pandemic?: Over 2500 GPs responded to the fifth BMA tracker survey and the vast majority (85%) reported that the changes that they had made in the way that they were working had been very or somewhat effective at combatting the pandemic. As practices plan for the future, it is vitally important to learn the lessons from this experience over of the last few months, the LMC will soon be releasing a position paper on the resetting of primary care, and practices will be interested to read the GP specific results from the survey and read a blog by Krishna Kasaraneni, GPC England Executive team member, with his reflections on the survey results
CHIS Update For Practice and Immunisations Nurses: We have recently undergone a consultation with practices to discuss the issue of child Movers In (MVI) and if they should be blocked from scheduling for new immunisations. The current process is as follows: any MVI has a scheduling block applied for 35 days to ensure the CHIS receives the immunisation history from a previous CHIS or new GP. For babies under 6 months, we do not add this block due to the tight timelines on rotavirus and the possibility of the child passing the age limit. To address the issue of MVIs under 6 months old being incorrectly scheduled, we added a new column at the end of your scheduled lists going forward that highlights all children that are MVIs. This should inform your practice immunisation teams of any children who need to be reviewed before immunisations are given.
If you have any comments or concerns regarding this, please get in touch with our GP Engagement Officer, Erik Renz via email (erik.renz@nhs.net) or mobile (07761 52568). have recently started utilising social media to get information out and reach our stakeholders.
And Finally...
France is to increase spot fines for littering from €68 to €135 after an outcry about face masks and surgical gloves polluting oceans.
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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