Somerset LMC Weekly Update Friday 24th March 2023
Date sent: Friday 24 March 2023
Sent to all Somerset GPs and Practice Managers This and previous updates are available here
- MD Soundbites!
- Further Letter to Health Secretary from BMA
- Medical Examiner Service Rollout to Primary Care May Be Postponed
- Workforce Returns – Please Report all Hours that GPs Work (from the GPC)
- New to Partnership Payment Scheme Last Call
- PC-SC Collaboration Forum
- National Lipid Guidance
- Gonorrhoea on the Rise
- Nightingale Stock
- Top Tips...
Can be found here. This week...
- CQRS reminder - Job Vacancies
Medical Examiner Service Rollout to Primary Care May Be Postponed: You may have noticed recent media reports suggesting the rollout of the Medical Examiner Service, due next month, may be postponed (again). Dr Golda Shelley-Fraser, our Regional Medical Examiner and Consultant Histopathologist at RUH, said this week, "We are awaiting formal comms from DHSC in the form of a ministerial statement imminently. This will be cascaded as soon as the information is available.” We will update practices as soon as we hear, so watch this space! It is however, possible that the while the LMC anticipate that the rollout of the Medical Examiner Service will be postposed it MAY NOT BE and if that is the case there will be a need for all GPs to comply with the changes in the legislation in the 1st April. The LMC is prepared to share details of how we comply if needed.
Workforce Returns – Please Report all Hours that GPs Work (from the GPC): Following some exploratory work within GPC England it has become evident that the workforce returns that each practice submits may no longer be accurate given the increased work GPs have been doing since the pandemic. We would like to remind practices to ensure their submitted workforce returns accurately match the work being done by partners and salaried doctors. It helps GPCE in negotiations to be able to evidence that GPs are working longer hours to provide the care their patients need.
Returns for each GP are filed in hours per week and should reflect the work being done each week, during a normal week when not on leave. It is important that returns reflect the actual hours worked, not an estimate based on nominal sessions planned.
Returns will usually be completed by practice managers and can be filed here. There are two boxes where hours worked per week can be entered. One shows contracted hours and one shows actual hours. For salaried GPs, only the contracted hours box is used in the returns. For contractors and zero-hours GPs, only the actual hours box is used in the returns. If the same numbers are put in both boxes it will ensure the hours are correctly captured. You should factor in all work done over the course of a week in providing NHS services, including time spent doing CPD (including any done at home).
It is worth remembering that the salaried model contract references four hours per week of CPD on an annualised basis and that this therefore is to be considered working time. If a salaried GP has an annualised CPD allowance included in their contract, the equivalent hours per week should be added to the reported hours for the return.
If salaried GP’s contracted hours happen to be fewer than the hours actually worked, then aside from a conversation about how the contract might be updated to reflect this work, recording the actual hours worked will be beneficial to the profession in showing to government exactly how much work we are doing. Once processed, the returns are published monthly on NHS Digital website. One full time equivalent doctor is associated with 37.5 hours of work per week. The next collection is at the end of the March and it would be helpful if returns could be checked prior to next month's publication.
New to Partnership Payment Scheme Last Call: The N2PP scheme was introduced in July 2020 for an anticipated two years. In December 2021, NHS England extended the scheme into 2023. GPs and other clinical staff intending to apply for the scheme need to have entered into an equity partnership by 31 March 2023 to be able to submit an application by 30 June 2023. Find out more about the application process online or you can email england.newtopartnershipenquiries@nhs.net.
PC-SC Collaboration Forum: A reminder that the next meeting of this informal Teams group is on Tuesday 28th March 1-2pm. Please do drop in and have a listen and contribute if you would like to click here to join the meeting. The meeting is scheduled for the last Tuesday of every month (aside from April when it will be a week earlier on the 18th April) and if you would like a recurring invitation please email beverley.peacey@somersetft.nhs.uk. We have had great feedback from those who have attended, so if you haven’t tried it, please give it a go and please help us to spread the word. Everyone in general practice is welcome.
Topics for the March meeting will include:
- “We need to talk about Dermatology”
- Radiology – A new IT results system is planned, let us know what matters to you
- Confused by the T3/4 pilot – Julia Thomas will be there to discuss it
- The regular ‘final 30’ – a free forum for anyone to raise any points/ask questions on anything that affects us working together.
National Lipid Guidance is usefully summarised National Guidance for Lipid Management Prevention also available through Chapter 2.12 Lipid-Regulating Drugs – Somerset Prescribing Formulary. This has been highly recommended by Somerset’s lipid lead Dr Alex Bickerton), who also recommends HEART UK - The Cholesterol Charity as a useful link for patients.
Gonorrhoea on the Rise: UK Health Security Agency has this month highlighted that gonorrhoea cases in England have increased – so the headlines are that as doctors we need to be mindful that those with new or multiple partners get tested. If you need a refresher of the symptoms see here.
Nightingale Stock: Since sending the comms out last week on the free stock available it has come to light that practices cannot order direct and orders need to be placed via a Trust, SPH have now secured a a route for practices to place orders, via YDH, those practices wishing to place an order are asked to e mail an expression of interest initially to sphadmin@nhs.net an update of stock is available here.
Top Tips...
CQRS Reminder: CQRS currently has a reminder for practices to complete the four manual Yes/No indicators for the QI indictors, QIPDD009, 10, 11 and 12. Guidance on the end of year process can be found at Quality Outcomes Framework (QOF) - CSU Collaborative & CQRS. Please complete by 31.3.23.
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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