Somerset LMC Weekly Update Friday 11th August 2023
Date sent: Friday 11 August 2023
Sent to all Somerset GPs and Practice Managers This and previous updates are available here
- MD Soundbites!
- GPAS (General Practice Alert State)
- Enhanced Service Specifications for COVID and Flu for the coming Autumn/Winter 23
- LD Annual Health Checks (AHC)
- General Practice Responsibility in Responding to Private Healthcare
- What Does Good Look Like? Taking Back Control in General Practice LMC Study Day 12th September, Taunton Racecourse
- The Meno Series - Menopause Mandate
- Specialist NHS Menopause Service in Somerset – GP Feedback Required
- Legacy Nurse Vacancy
- Training - Responding to Demand for Access -Creating Positive Patient Experience - Thursday 7th September
- Safe Working in General Practice (BMA) This guidance is regularly updated with new items and suggestions
- Job Vacancies
- And Finally...
- Fighting for Life - The Twelve Battles that Made Our NHS, and the Struggle for its Future
Enhanced Service Specifications for COVID and Flu for the coming Autumn/Winter 23: Following recent JVCI advice, NHSE released guidance on the 10th August 2023. One significant issue is that they are suggesting the start date for flu is the 1st October. The BMA are not in agreement with NHSE, read here. With regard to the proposed delayed flu start date, the BMA’s response is, ‘Practices should proceed with any Flu clinics they have already arranged and proceed with contacting eligible patients to fill those scheduled Flu clinics, in anticipation of the delivery of the influenza vaccines next month.’ The LMC steer is to continue to book your flu clinics from September and we remain in urgent talks with the ICB and GPC.
LD Annual Health Checks (AHC): As part of co-production work around AHCs, the quality team at the ICB have created (working with people with LD, the Somerset RCPA and the Open University) an AHC leaflet based on 10 principles of expectations for people with LD when they go for their AHCs and a video is available here.
General Practice Responsibility in Responding to Private Healthcare: GPC England has published guidance on general practice responsibility in responding to private healthcare, to help practices reduce this extra workload. Due to nearly 7.5 million people on NHS waiting lists in May 2023, patients are increasingly resorting to seeking private healthcare to deal with their health problems, which is adding extra workload for general practices. Our guidance covers what the responsibilities are for general practices in response to private providers making requests, such as making private referrals, providing medical information about patients, organise further tests, issuing prescriptions, and onward NHS referrals.
What Does Good Look Like? Taking Back Control in General Practice LMC Study Day 12th September 2023, Taunton Racecourse: This will be a whole day event of presentations and break out groups, and is a joint workforce event organised by Somerset LMC/Somerset Education Trust and Training Hub. We have managed to secure backfill funding from the ICB for GPs to attend this event. We encourage one GP and the Practice Manager to attend. Draft programme is available here. Places are limited so please book early.
The Meno Series - Menopause Mandate is delighted to bring you a series of expert interviews for healthcare professionals. The aim is to support you and your teams in understanding the menopause and HRT from both a prescribing and dispensing point of view. Dr Juliet Balfour is a GP and a British Menopause Society accredited menopause specialist and trainer. She runs an NHS menopause service and is a Menopause Mandate expert. She has recorded a series of 15-minute films to inform GPs and their teams.
Specialist NHS Menopause Service in Somerset – Feedback Required: NHS Somerset are collating feedback in their planning for a sustainable Specialist NHS Menopause Service in Somerset. They are currently piloting the service, with funding until March 2024. GPs are asked to complete this questionnaire by midnight on Friday 1st September.
And finally...
Fighting for Life - The Twelve Battles that Made Our NHS, and the Struggle for its Future 7.45 pm Tuesday 31st October 2023: Isabel Hardman - Wells Festival of Literature Cutting through sentimentality and sloganeering on all sides, assistant editor of The Spectator Isabel Hardman tells the gripping story of this complicated institution through the people who keep it alive - nurses, doctors, patients and the politicians who decide its fate.
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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