Somerset LMC Weekly Update Friday 1st September 2023
Date sent: Friday 1 September 2023
Sent to all Somerset GPs and Practice Managers This and previous updates are available here
- MD Soundbites! - New
- COVID Vaccination Programme Update from the GPC
- Referrals Rejected Solely on the Basis of a Lack of Capacity
- Completing Palliative Care Mars Chart (Reminder Re Medications)
- What Does Good Look Like? Taking Back Control in General Practice LMC Study Day 12th September
- Trans & Non-Binary Sexual Health Q&A Event 13th September via Teams
- Opportunities with the New Careers Plus Programme for Nurses Working Within Primary Care
- Council Run NHS Health Checks Programme
- SFT Nurse Legacy Nurses Not to be Confused with Training Hub Legacy Nurses Advert
- SIDeR Benefits Workshop 20th September 2023
- Safe Working in General Practice (BMA) This guidance is regularly updated with new items and suggestions
- Job Vacancies
- Somerset Emotional Wellbeing Podcasts
Referrals Rejected Solely on the Basis of a Lack of Capacity: The LMC is aware that some referrals have been rejected by the Trust because of lack of capacity. The attached reassuring letter has been received from the CEO confirming that it is not legally possible to reject a referral that meets the relevant criteria for the service under the terms of the Standard NHS Contract commissioned by NHS Somerset. The LMC will consequently work with relevant services to ensure that no referral sent by practice teams is rejected solely on the basis of a lack of capacity to provide the support requested.
Completing Palliative Care Mars Chart (Reminder Re Medications): Somerset has an agreed palliative care MAR chart, which helpfully details medications and dosage for Just In Case Medication, there has been a recent incidence where these were not completed correctly please note
- The MARS chart needs to be completed with the doses – it has to specify the exact doses that are to be prescribed – eg: Midazolam 2.5-5mg s/c qds prn
- The FP10 px for the actual drugs has to also specify the exact quantity and the dose eg: Midazolam 5mg/ml in 2ml. Supply 10 ampoules. 5-5mg s/c qds prn
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. The programme is available here. Booking will close soon here.
Opportunities with the New Careers Plus Programme for Nurses Working Within Primary Care: A 10-session, funded programme, held over 5 months, which is aimed at nurses who are in the mid to later part of their careers. This programme has been developed with a supportive, coaching focus and is designed to help nurses discover a more fulfilling work life balance and therefore support practices in the retention of those experienced staff who are vital to Primary Care. There are only a small number of places unfilled for the first programme which starts in October 2023 so please do contact sphadmin@nhs.net for more information and learn how you or your practice can benefit from this new and exciting programme.
Council Run NHS Health Checks Programme: Somerset Council are in the process of looking at options for the organisation of the NHS Health Checks programme as it moves in-house to the council from April 2024. They have had a survey out to collect feedback from practices. Key issues of interest include:
- Practice preferences for inviting patients for health checks either in-conjunction with delivery or not
- Options for recording data from health checks for practices interested in delivery
- Organisation of the blood test elements of the check and options around point of care testing and the usual pathology service
- Format for receiving data on health checks carried out elsewhere in the Somerset system
- Sharing data on outcomes and contract management
Somerset Council would be grateful to gather as many views as possible, even from practices who may not be interested in delivering health checks or sharing data to facilitate invites. The survey will be open until 15th September. The link is here.
SFT Nurse Legacy Nurses Not to be Confused with Training Hub Legacy Nurses Advert: You may have recently seen an advert introducing the new Nursing Legacy Mentor team. This is not to be confused with Somerset Training Hub advert for Legacy Nurses. We are currently recruiting experienced General Practice Nurses to support our GPN Fellowship Programme. Our Legacy Nurses will provide individualised support to nurses new to primary care and work with practices to provide mentoring over 2 years. Our next cohort is due to commence end of October and we will be sending information out to practices very soon.
Legacy Mentoring is one of the Chief Nursing Officer's High Impact actions to support nurse retention. This initiative has been funded by NHS England for a year across Somerset.
SFT have recruited experienced nurses to offer coaching support to newly registered colleagues (within first 24 months in post). This includes primary care nurses. The mentors aim to help facilitate a positive working environment for people in their early career and provide support through coaching and mentoring.
SIDeR Benefits Workshop 20th September 2023: The ICB digital team are looking for clinical GP practice users of SIDeR to attend a benefits workshop on Wednesday 20th September from 9:30–3pm (including lunch) at The Holiday Inn, Taunton, to work through feedback in order to baseline the current SIDeR service and improve it moving forward with SIDeR+. They would love to hear from you. There will be two main sessions from 10:00–12:00 and then 12:45–14:45 so even if you could just attend for a couple of hours that would be welcome. Backfill funding is available to release attendees. Please email lewis.coward@nhs.net if you'd like to attend.
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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