Somerset LMC weekly Update Friday 18 August 2017
Date sent: Friday 18 August 2017
Sent to all Somerset GPs and Practice Managers This and previous updates are available here
- Locked and Loaded. The latest blog from LMC Chairman Dr Nick Bray
- Somerset GP Board
- Update on SBS incident
- PCSE claims guidance
- Vaccine Update - Flu Special edition 268 - August 2017
Somerset GP Board Now up and Running. You may have seen the item in the last LMC Newsletter about a proposal to form a new Board, made up of members from a range of organisations, intended to relate to the STP about all matters to do with primary care in general and general practice in particular.
We’re pleased to report that the Somerset GP Board has now been convened. Core membership will be five representatives from the LMC, five from SPH, one from the CCG COG, the GP advisor to the STP, and the associate medical directors responsible for primary care at TST and YDH. Other members will be co-opted or invited to attend particular meetings as required. With advance notice observers from practices are welcome to attend.
The main purpose of the Board is to provide an authoritative consensus - where possible – on business plans and proposals made by the STP that are likely to affect GP practices. We will be pressing in particular for a proper impact assessment on practices and a discussion of any appropriate resource transfer to be included in all business plans. The Board is keen that all its work should be open to scrutiny by practices so minutes of meetings and all other documentation will be available for colleagues to see.
The intention is to try and respond quickly to STP consultations, and the Board recognises that it will need help from the wider general practice community to do this so we will be looking for interested volunteers from all areas of general practice to sit on very focussed short life working groups to we can achieve this.
In due course the Board anticipates acting as the co-ordinator bids for development funding and resources made by practices and federations up to the STP, and that role should include some help for you with bid writing.
We’ll keep you up to date with development through a regular slot in this Update, and also via the SPH Newsletter.
Update on SBS incident. The GPC have received an update from NHS England about the NHS Shared Business Services incident, whereby correspondence in the mail redirection service did not reach the intended recipients.
The incident team sent correspondence to GP practices in December 2016, March and May 2017 asking practices to complete and return a response form to indicate whether any patient may have suffered potential harm as a result of the error. NHS England have said that approximately 30% of practices have yet to return these forms and will be writing to Heads of Primary Care to inform them of practices that have yet to respond, and CCGs will also be aware.
GPC would encourage practices to undertake this in a timely manner as they are best placed to do it, and should be paid for such work. Payments for work undertaken in March and May 2017 will be paid in August or September 2017.
All cases of potential harm are now being reviewed by NHS England GP national Clinical Directors to confirm whether further clinical review is required. NHS England are contacting practices to obtain patient details, and can offer support to practices if required. In recognition of workload on practices, local area teams may be asked to assist with providing information.
NHS England has provided GPs with a dedicated phone line 0800 028 9723 and email address england.sbsincident@nhs.net on which they can use to contact the Incident Team with any queries.
PCSE claims guidance. GPC England are aware that practices and individual GPs continue to experience unacceptable incidents relating to PCSE (primary care support services in England), commissioned by NHS England and provided by Capita. The issues have been ongoing for some time and we are aware of cases where practices have not received payments, or have received incorrect payments. It is never acceptable for payments to be delayed and we advise practices to follow the below process to ensure incorrect payments are corrected. Similarly, we are aware that practices or individual doctors may have suffered losses due to the failing of these services.
GPC advise following the attached process if a practice or individual has experienced an issue due to PCSE. Please contact us at info.gpc@bma.org.uk if the issue is not resolved through this process in a timely manner, the GPC will take up your claim with NHS England.
This guidance is also available online, please follow this link
Best wishes
Somerset LMC
Crown Medical Centre, Venture Way, Taunton, TA2 8QY
Tel: (01823) 331 428
Fax: (01823) 338 561
