Somerset LMC Weekly Update Friday 4th December 2015
Date sent: Friday 4 December 2015
Sent to all Somerset GPs and Practice Managers
- Anticoagulation Monitoring Service Revision
- GPC Guidance on New Models of Care
- Physician Associates GPC Briefing paper
- Microbial Resistance - e-learning package
- OOH Service
- Technical problems with Disharge Summaries from T&S letter attached
- Request from BMA for GPs to help with audit of research requests
- Men ACWY for freshers (missed cohort) - updated FAQ
- Vaccine Update 237 December
Anticoagulation Monitoring Service Revision: The LMC has been negotiating with the CCG (and Area Team) on behalf of Practices on the specification and the payments for the anticoagulation enhanced Service. Practices have been and still are providing a service which is outside the initial specification and the funding has not been increasing year on year to reflect this.
The LMC negotiated with the CCG to include in the new specification the following NEW aspects:
Initiation and stabilisation of warfarin pre and post cardioversion testing Pre and Post-operative testing of patients on warfarin.
There are also new monitoring requirements as part of the specification.The specification, in the LMC's opinion, describes an excellent all in one, safe and patient focused service.
The pricing, however, has not been agreed by the LMC with the CCG. We acknowledge that the CCG has increased funding in a difficult financial climate but there is more work in the new specification.
One example of analysis of the cost of providing the service is as follows: - The price of £166.19 per patient per year includes the test strips to be used.
Each test strip costs £2.80
The average number of tests per patient per year is 18.
18 x £2.80 = £50.40
So that really means we are being paid £166.19- £50.40 per patient per year and that equals £115.79.
So for every test that equals £115.79 divided by 18 = £6.43 so each test is paid £6.43 but what does it cost to deliver?
A nurse/ HCA costs from £ 2- £3.50 per ten minutes including superannuation.
Which means we are paid between £2.93- £4.43 per test.
This does not yet take account of running costs e.g. heating, receptionist time, admin, letters, printing, stamps and the doctor's time and expertise.
In the LMC's opinion this service is marginal as regards payment for services provided and Practices would be wise to fully assess the cost of providing it.
Please let the LMC know if you are planning to continue to provide the enhanced service.
OOH Service: If you do encounter any problems concerning the current OOH service we would appreciate that the office is cc'd into correspondence as we collate to raise with both the commissioners and the providers of the service.
Request for GPs to help with audit of research requests The BMA’s Ethics department is seeking GP practices who are willing to provide examples of requests for patient information that they receive from researchers. This is to help us work with the Health Research Authority (HRA) to develop a set of standards for researchers, which will hopefully reduce the work required for GP practices to comply with requests for research.
Researchers regularly approach GP practices to provide patient information or support with recruitment for research projects. Members have told us that there can be gaps in the information provided in these requests, which can leave doctors unsure if they would meet their legal and professional obligations if they complied with the request. GPs we have spoken to would often like to support research, but are unable to because they do not have time to find out the additional information they need.
The standards we are developing with the HRA will inform researchers about when it is appropriate to contact GPs with requests for information, and what information to include. To do this, we need to know more about the nature of the requests that practices currently receive. For example, we would like to know what kinds of people or organisations are making these requests, what type of research they are doing, and what kind of information and/or support they are requesting from the practice.
We are seeking the help of any GP practice that is willing to send us photocopies of all requests for information that they receive from researchers between now and 29 Jan 2016.
If you are interested in helping, or would like more information, please contact Hannah Quigan (hquigan@bma.org.uk or 020 3058 7463).
Kind Regards
Jill
Jill Hellens
Executive Director
Somerset LMC
TEL: 01823 331428
Fax:01823 338561
www.somersetlmc.co.uk
Attached file: 13-11-15-GP-notice.pdf
