Somerset LMC Weekly Update Friday 17th September 2021
Date sent: Friday 17 September 2021
Sent to all Somerset GPs and Practice Managers This and previous updates are available here
- Health and Social Care Workers Winter Vaccinations Campaign from NHSEI
- Moving Flu Vaccines
- LMC writes to Somerset MP's
- New Health Secretary gets off to disappointing start
- Survey of practices' experiences of using PCSE payments & pensions portal in August
- The Importance of Workforce Planning – it’s wider than just your “ARRS”! October 6th 2021
- Dermatology
- Short shifts for OOH work
Health and Social Care Workers Winter Vaccinations Campaign from NHSEI: We will be running an integrated Health and Social Care Workers Winter Vaccinations campaign communicating the importance of both the flu vaccine and COVID-19 booster. Printed material for the Winter Vaccinations campaign is now available to order and will be delivered in early October. To order printed materials please click here. Digital versions of these campaign assets will be available for download week commencing 20 September. In the interim, to support systems and providers with communicating the importance of getting the flu vaccination to NHS staff, downloadable flu assets are available on the Campaign Resource Centre.
Moving Flu Vaccines: The CCG’s Shaun Green has obtained confirmation from NHSEI that when required, where there is a need to do so to avoid wastage or enable patient access to vaccination, movement of flu vaccines between sites (with good cold chain practice) are exempt from wholesale dealer requirements. For those who are interested in such things changes to the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 were made in 2020 by Statutory Instrument No. 1125 to amend ‘Regulation 19 (exemptions from requirement for wholesale dealer's licence)’ and will be revisited next April.
LMC writes to Somerset MP's: On Wednesday the Medical Director emailed Mrs Pow (Taunton Deane), Mr Warburton (Somerton & Frome), Mr Heappey (Wells), Mr Fysh (Yeovil) & Mr Liddell-Grainger (Bridgwater & West Somerset): “I am writing to you because the local medical committee is well aware of the worsening difficulties in access to primary care your constituents are experiencing now that the pre-existing workforce and demand imbalance have been exacerbated by COVID. Somerset practices in fact made an estimated 227k appointments (for a population of 558k) in July, 12% up on last year and 56% were face to face.
“However practices are trying to deal with demand up 20-30% with a depleted, tired and demoralised workforce. For example they gained little credit for their efforts in the vaccination campaign while our hospital colleagues, correctly, got great praise. Furthermore the 5000 extra GPs promised by Jeremy Hunt have not materialised and, although we have now 100 GP trainees in the county offering hope in years to come, the number of GPs in the country as a whole has gone down since 2019.
“GP teams are as unhappy as anyone else about the problems in practising just now. It seems unfair, for instance, that they are being blamed for following the directive from NHSEI for “total telephone triage” for infection prevention and control purposes. Also NHSEI wants more GPs to do more remote consultations when the Secretary of State says we should see more people in person.
“I would like to invite you to spend some time in a practice in your constituency which I would be happy to arrange so that you can see that there are two sides to every story.
“I will be interviewed on BBC Radio Somerset tomorrow and will mention that I have extended this offer to all your parliamentary colleagues in the county. I will look forward to hearing from you.”
New Health Secretary gets off to disappointing start: After Mr Javid’s remarks in the House of Commons about face-to-face consultations this week Dr Richard Vautrey wrote him this letter. The LMC thinks the following paragraph was key: “Urgent action is needed - but not simply to mandate doctors to do more, in time they do not have, with staff that do not exist, in premises that are too small and unventilated to be safe. In addition, practices are still expected to achieve rigid QOF targets and yet don’t have the blood bottles to do this, and yet no account has been made for this. It is urgent action from the government that is needed to both provide the necessary resource and to remove the unnecessary targets and bureaucracy that get in the way of delivering good care to our patients… It is urgent action that is needed from government to publicly support the general practice workforce to end the abuse, and it is critical action from government to attract more people to work in the NHS, while keeping those who are considering leaving primary care all together.”
Survey of practices' experiences of using PCSE payments & pensions portal in August: Please take part in the BMA/Institute of General Practice Management survey about experiences of using the PCSE payments and pensions portal specifically during August. We are also keen to know about your experiences of contacting PCSE for support in using the portal since it came in on 1 June.
The Importance of Workforce Planning – it’s wider than just your “ARRS”! October 6th 2021: Places are still available or this day to be held at Taunton racecourse all being well, ( if not we will revert to virtual) it will be a mixture of presentations and group work, and is aimed at PCN clinical directors & managers, practice managers, operation managers, lead nurses and GP employers numbers are limited to 2 per practice initially so please do book early. Full programme
Workforce planning is an essential part of how every practice and PCN tackles the worsening capacity problem. How to have the numbers and mix in your team to meet demand and protect the wellbeing of everyone involved are the two big questions we all face.
This important day will help you to understand more about:
- The key steps in workforce planning
- What's happening in Somerset's general practice workforce right now and what are people doing to tackle the problems
- How New Role professionals can make an even bigger difference
- Practical steps every practice can take to improve practice nurse capacity now and for the future
- New innovative ways of doing things that will increase capacity and improve care
- How to look after and hold onto the team you've got
- How to get help making and progressing your plans
Dermatology: Devon Doctors’ Dr Mark Eggleton passed on this useful repository of appearances of dermatological conditions and skin manifestations of systemic illness in patients with darker skin. As the team behind it point out, many of these conditions are usually depicted on Caucasian skin in textbooks and features may take on different appearances in other patient groups.
Short shifts for OOH work: Devon Doctors is looking for GPs and ANPs to work triage shifts to support the wider system across Somerset and Devon with triage and ambulance / ED revalidations. While full shifts are available, we would be only too happy to accommodate those who are only able to work an hour or two any time of the day. What is more, this work can be done remotely from an OOH centre, your practice or from home. For more email ddooh.rotas@nhs.net or 01392 823159.
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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