Weekly Update Friday 13th March 2015
Date sent: Friday 13 March 2015
SPQS Sign Up Arrangements By now your practice should have had a letter from the CCG inviting you to take part in SPQS for 2015-16. Recognising that this is a scheme that is not going to produce immediate results, NHS England has agreed that essentially the existing scheme will continue into 2015-16, but with a particular focus on the use of the Patient Activation Measure tool as a marker of how SPQS initiatives are making services more patient-centred.
We still do not have individual practice 2015-16 SPQS income projections available, but for most practices the income will be close to that for 2014-15.
Although there is no deadline for signing up, it will help with administration and planning arrangements if practices can let the CCG know as soon as they have decided which, if either, of the quality schemes they wish to join.
Workforce Minimum Dataset update The GPC continue talks with NHS England and the HSCIC regarding the information requested for this submission, we hope to have further news soon. There is some confusion on the timescales for the submission and this is the end of May 2015 please FAQ 9 in the FAQS. The data is supposed to reflect the practice position as at March, which is why the webtool is open now.
Focus on New Care model Vanguard Sites As many will be aware Yeovil Hospital were successful in their Vanguard bid, this bid centred on the development of an integrated Primary and Acute Care System. The GPC have issued guidance on the Vanguard models and this can be found on the LMC website here
Locums and Smart Cards Dr Tim Horlock the locum representative on the LMC has put together some guidance for Locums on the use of smart cards, this can be found here
Smokefreelife Somerset New stop smoking service for the county The LMC had a productive meeting with the new service providers please find full details and the SLA for practices on the website
All things CQC We have been informed that Somerset Practices will not be inspected in April as previously indicated, these will now commence in May and carry on through June, they have agreed to share a list of the practices to be visited with the LMC next month, which we will share with you all.
The CQC have also published guidance on the display of their ratings (although we are aware that many practices who have been inspected have not yet received them!) please find the relevant guidance on the LMC website
Also we would advise practices to check their Junk folders for CQC reports (junk not borderware) as a Practice manager informed the office that they found theirs in junk after receiving a rminder from the CQC that they had not responded!!
GPC Guidance on list closures Following a number of enquiries about list closures, GPC has issued the following additional guidance on the options available to practices, which is based on material in ‘Quality first: Managing workload to deliver safe patient care’.
