Somerset LMC Weekly Update Friday 18th September 2020
Date sent: Friday 18 September 2020
Sent to all Somerset GPs and Practice Managers This and previous updates are available here SGPET weekly update can be found here
- Situation Report
- BMA letter to Simon Stevens
- Thanksgiving Service for NHS: 3.00pm 18/10/20
- CV19 - Keep Independent School Registered Lists Updated
- QOF changes at a Glance (also available on LMC website)
- Remote Fit Notes - Remember to sign them
- GP Earnings & Expenses
- From Dr David James at SPS
- Somerset Talking Therapies - eCorrespondence
- New to Practice Fellowship Programme
- Coaching Sessions for Practice Staff
- Education Facilitator Somerset Training Hub - Part time 24 hours per week - Fixed Term 2 years with view to extension (part home/part office based)
- Are you involved in the clinical supervision of physiotherapists, pharmacists, paramedics or physician associates in your practice?
- Living Well Somerset Week
- And Finally...
Situation Report: Unsurprisingly under the current circumstances more practices are reporting themselves to be “amber” in the regular SitRep. At the request of the CCG we have decided to add another question asking if practices feel the need for the LMC to support them?
CV19 - Keep Independent School Registered Lists Updated: Alison Bell of Somerset Public Health has written to independent schools. Cases of CV19 are notified to the local authority in the area where the patient is registered. Some recent cases notified to PH for contact tracing have turned out to have been once boarders at a Somerset school but who left the school and county some time ago. Practices that look after an independent school should make sure that lists are kept current and remove patients who have moved on but not yet re-registered elsewhere.
Remote Fit Notes - Remember to sign them: DWP has asked the BMA to remind GPs that as per previously agreed guidance they will accept fit notes that are printed, signed, scanned and e-mailed to patients. This advice has also been given to employers. However DWP is receiving a significant number unsigned which they cannot accept, resulting in inconvenience for both patients and GPs.
GP Earnings & Expenses: NHSD published the GP earnings and expenses for 2018/19 showing show an average increase in income before tax of 3.4% for GP contractors and 3.8% for salaried GPs in England. For non-dispensing GP contractors the increase was 4.1%. Increases were higher in Scotland, in part related to the introduction of new contract arrangements, and in Wales, but lower in Northern Ireland. After many years of real-terms pay cuts for GPs these figures show that this trend is slowly beginning to be reversed in England.
From Dr David James at SPS: We recently experienced a delay in the delivery of reagent for B12 testing. Meanwhile samples were frozen to minimise degradation and all have been now processed. Subsequent review of the results has shown that, for reasons as yet unknown, there has been a significant left shift in results on samples taken between 27/8 and 10/9 inclusive. Please be aware that any low results on samples during this period may be erroneously low, and patients should not be diagnosed as having B12 deficiency/insufficiency without a repeat sample. We will be extracting lists of patients where the reported result during this period was < 120 and distributing them to the requesting GP/Consultant for review. Apologies for the inconvenience caused.
Somerset Talking Therapies - eCorrespondence: Work is underway to remove the paper output from the Somerset Talking Therapies Service.
We estimate the number of letters sent to GP Practices in 19/20 amounts to over 30,000, which is recognised to have a considerable impact on Surgery workflows. We aim to transfer these volumes to electronic equivalents, allowing EMIS to absorb the documents, as per SMART workflows. We will be conducting testing with a Practice during w/c 21st September. If testing is successful, we will continue with preparations to enable all Talking Therapies correspondence to be sent by electronic means from Thursday 1st October 2020.
New to Practice Fellowship Programme: This is for newly qualified GPs and new Practice Nurses. National guidance now finalised. Flyer for the Somerset GP programme can be found here. GPN programme will be available in a few weeks.
Coaching Sessions for Practice Staff: Yvonne Vigar of Astara Consulting has made two coaching sessions per week available for practices to book via her Eventbrite page. Practice Managers need to enter to promo code SOMFREE which means they don’t need to pay for these sessions (the LMC is paying). It’s suggested that there can be up to two sessions per practice but Yvonne will then have a discussion, without obligation, about whether any more sessions at the practice’s expense would be helpful. She can also link with the LMC resilience team.
Education Facilitator Somerset Training Hub - Part time 24 hours per week - Fixed Term 2 years with view to extension (part home/part office based): Somerset Training Hub are seeking an experienced clinical practitioner/practice nurse to join the Somerset Training Hub to support the training, education and development of all non-medical staff working in primary and community care across Somerset. This is a great opportunity for an experienced Clinical Practitioner interested in gaining experience in the field of professional education and development of staff in Primary Care. Full details here.
Are you involved in the clinical supervision of physiotherapists, pharmacists, paramedics or physician associates in your practice?: This free online course over three evenings in October will help you. More information here.
Living Well Somerset Week: Join in a week of free webinars daily from 21 – 25th Sept on a range of subjects on how to live well in Somerset- GP advice on preventing long term illness like diabetes, increasing exercise and motivation, healthier habits for reducing your risk of Covid-19, tips to improve mental wellbeing and supporting the older people around you. Read more and register your place for the lunchtime sessions (1-2pm) here.
And Finally...
Healthwatch survey: Practices will probably suffering from ‘survey fatigue’, however, in response to the hot topic of accessing tests for Covid-19, Healthwatch Somerset are conducting a very short poll (3 simple questions). The link directly to the survey can be found here.
They will be adding the results to those from their Covid-19 survey, which will then be compiled into a report that will be shared with relevant Somerset health and social care organisations.
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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