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Somerset LMC Weekly Update Friday 4th September

Date sent: Friday 4 September 2015

All Somerset GPs and Practice Managers   This and previous updates can be found here

Requests by secondary care to follow up results: There is an increasing burden on all of us in following tests that have been requested in Secondary Care. Either the Trust requests that we do so or the patient asks us to chase up a result that Secondary has spent a long time resolving.  This occurs particularly after admission and discharges and from out-patients. Sometime back we sent you an amended version of a GPC form that can be sent back to the Consultant concerned emphasizing that it is not our responsibility to do this and we would urge you to use this. We have attached it to this bulletin for ease of access but the original GPC document is on the website.  Patients should continue to be encouraged to contact their consultant in this situation.  If you should receive any adverse comments as a result of this action please contact the LMC office with details and we will collate and pass these on. lmcoffice@somersetlmc.nhs.uk

Prior approval of funding for Tonsillectomy and Varicose Vein surgery. You will have seen in the CCG COG bulletin that there is proposal that this will be required before GPs refer patients to Consultants. The LMC discussed this with the CCG today who will re-visit the matter and confer further with us. The LMC position is that GPs refer for an opinion not an operation but in order to reach a resolution it would be helpful if GPs can ensure that they are following the guidance regarding agreed funding that exists.  It seems that this is not always followed by GPs and secondary care alike and it is important that we do do so to help avoid  misunderstandings amongst patients about currently agreed procedures. 

New terminology and Roadshows. In order to avoid confusion about the different roles of Federations  amongst organisations, it has been agreed that as from 1/10 the terms ‘Commissioning locality’ and ‘Provider Federation’ will be used to clarify what ‘hat’ the groups of Practices are wearing in certain situations.  The COG has agreed that there may be more flexibility in the use of funds available to Federations and the results of the recent CCG survey suggest that the large majority of Practices would consider supporting the PSU with some of these funds.  The LMC are holding 4 roadshows about the proposed PSU and Collaborative working and there are still places available should you wish to attend. 

More ‘Nos’ to say to transfer of work. There is a proposal that GPs should take on monitoring of Bariatric patients two years post- surgery. The LMC view is that this is a specialised service and we would advice Practices to decline to take responsibility for monitoring.  GPs are also being asked to take on psychotropic monitoring annually 12 months after the patients have commenced on treatment. Neither of these services are commissioned from GPs.   We have had further discussions with the CCG on funding transfer of work and we have pressed the CCG for firm proposals on the way forward.

Flu Vaccinations. Just a quick reminder that Practices need to have a firm plan in place to do these in view of how numbers fell off last year and that Pharmacists can now do these.  Pharmacists are also being encouraged Nationally to do Domiciliary  vaccinations so do make sure that you have this covered as well!

Meningitis B vaccine Following the introduction of the Meningococcal B vaccine to the childhood immunisations programme as from 1 September, please see the GPC briefing on the LMC Website

CCG OIS on CQRS We have had a number of emails asking us about the service “CCG OIS” on CQRS.  This acronym stands for Clinical Commissioning Group Outcomes Indicator Set. This data has been collected since 2013 for NHS England to monitor the CCG but it appears that this is the first time via CQRS. Practices are asked to accept the service on CQRS to ensure that the resulting data-set is as complete as possible, although it is not a contractual requirement.  This information is being extracted to enable the CCG to have a clear understanding of local needs in order to inform their commissioning decisions.

http://www.hscic.gov.uk/ccgois

http://www.england.nhs.uk/resources/resources-for-ccgs/ccg-out-tool/ccg-ois/

Changes to the SMS Service and Funding from 1 October 2015.   If you are not currently using the SMS service, but would like to, please contact the GP IT Service Desk as detailed in the document. Link

Following discussion at the CCG IM&T Strategy meeting with the LMC, it is also advised that SMS is only used for appointment reminders at this stage, and NOT for blood test results as these can cause confusion for patients.  If any practices currently use SMS for other purposes, please advise jess.brown@somersetccg.nhs.uk to note any benefits or problems experienced with using SMS to contact patients.

Please note that, although SMS is now part of core GP IT provision, current funding levels are not sufficient for current use, and the CCG will be raising this with NHS England to secure further funding to enable Somerset practices to further implement use of SMS text messaging to patients.

Please be mindful of limiting text messages to one fragment which is 160 characters; anything above this will be charged as additional messages and will duplicate costs. 

 

 

Kind Regards

Jill Hellens

Executive Director

Somerset LMC

TEL: 01823 331428

Fax:01823 338561

www.somersetlmc.co.uk

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Attached file: Template-documents-V3.doc