DDLMC WEEKLY UPDATE 1st OCTOBER 2020
NATIONAL UPDATES
GMS/PMS Contract Updates. Hopefully you will have seen the letter from Ed Waller about the updates to the GMS/PMS/APMS contracts. Surrey and Sussex LMCs have produced an excellent summary (Attachment A) of the changes which we hope you will find useful. In addition to the contract changes, the letter also includes the extension to the pandemic regulations until at least 31 March 2021:
- A suspension of the requirement to report Friends and Family Test returns;
- A temporary suspension of the requirement for individual patient consent in certain circumstances, to encourage increased use of electronic repeat dispensing.
- A continuation of the temporary increase in the number of appointment slots that practices must make available for direct booking by NHS111 to 1 slot per 500 patients per day. The slots, which will be booked following clinical triage, are not appointments in a traditional sense; instead practices should clinically assess the patients remotely and arrange their ongoing management. GP practices are asked to make sufficient slots available for NHS 111 to refer into; they should assess the use of the slots each day and adjust the number to meet demand. This could be fewer than 1 in 500.
Although these slots were originally designed to be used by CCAS for COVID-19 cases there is no contractual reason why NHS111 cannot use these for any patients. We would urge practices to monitor and document how these slots are being utilized as this will enable you to justify any decrease in the number of slots that you choose to make and also enable us to collate instances of any misuse of these slots by NHS111.
NHS Test and Trace Contact Tracing App. Following the launch of the App, a few practices have asked whether they are obliged to display a QR Code. GP practices are not obliged to display QR codes but as part of wider efforts to encourage the public to download the app, they may choose to generate a QR code here. These are not mandatory and patients are not obliged to scan them in order to attend.
Flu. The Screening and Immunisation Lead for Public Health England and NHS England and NHS Improvement – Midlands have sent out a letter (Attachment B) with an update of the flu immunisation programme. Unfortunately, the long-awaited protocol for accessing additional stocks from the national stockpile that was promised in September has still not been published.
LOCAL UPDATES
Red Patient Referrals to CRH. If an ambulant patient with confirmed or potential COVID-19 has been assessed and examined within primary care and deemed to require emergency treatment within the Emergency department, please call the red ED on 01246 516399 and ask to speak to the nurse in charge. The referring clinician and the nurse in charge will then determine a suitable time for the patient to present to the red doors outside of the ED to be collected. This route will avoid potentially infected patients queuing with non-infected patients.
Ask a Lung Consultant. Jo Rhodes from the CCG has asked us to share:
Have you got a lung cancer/ lung cancer pathway related question? Do you want to speak with a Lung Consultant from CRH and UHDB? Unsure about “straight-to-CT”? Or when to refer on a 2WW or other pathway? Interested in understanding about newer lung cancer treatments? A great opportunity is now available for you to “Ask a Lung Consultant”. We have Dr Mo Abdulla from CRH and Dr Paul Beckett from UHDB available for you to talk to via MS Teams in our “clinical chat room”.
The session will run 12.30pm –1.30 pm on Tuesday 3rd November via this link Join Microsoft Teams Meeting you can join and leave at any point during the session to talk about Lung cancer or Trust pathways.
If you have any questions you would like to send in advance please send them to jo.rhodes@nhs.net but please do not send patient identifiable information. The sessions are intended to be a general discussion and not patient specific. Please continue to access Advice & Guidance for patient specific advice.
Your attendance at this session will be taken as consent to the recording this session to share with others who were unable to attend.
GDPR Webinar Thank you to those who joined us yesterday for the webinar and our guest speakers Paul Couldrey (DPO), Dave Hill (CCG IT) and Liane Cotterill (NECS IG). The recording can be found at this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/kgSK1SG1phZYbb2--PXjnbpErpBTPNWUTJjzNnRZqd99SAvm-aMulGIOVm6b2Lo.duNaOO5VtU6kPIHf --PXjnbpErpBTPNWUTJjzNnRZqd99SAvm-aMulGIOVm6b2Lo.duNaOO5VtU6kPIHf
Passcode: &E6v7DX0
The main points were:
- Since the advent of the DPA2018 (Inc GDPR) the legal basis for sharing patient data for direct patient care is generally no longer consent. However, Type 1 opt outs remain, where a patient has opted out from sharing their data locally for everything except direct care. Type 2 opt outs have been replaced by the National Patient Data Opt Out; again these only cover opt outs for everything except direct care.
- The CCG “White List” of organisations whose IG processes have been certified as complaint are managed centrally by the CCG. If an individual organisation approaches a practice, they should be referred to Dave Hill at the CCG. Once added to the “White List” this will then be advised to practices.
Data Breach. It has come to our attention that following a recent MDT meeting, patient identifiable data was inadvertently shared with all practices who attended rather than just the data for their own patients. Practices are reminded to remain vigilant when sharing sensitive data.
Community Pharmacy Update. The weekly LPC update is at Attachment C.
GP TASK FORCE DERBYSHIRE
GP Recruitment GPTF have been contacted by a number of GPs looking for jobs within practices in Derbyshire. We are looking at the logistics of running a virtual ‘Careers Speed dating’ event, similar to those previously run by the RCGP Vale of Trent. If you are interested in partnership, salaried or retainer positions and would be interested in such as event please contact ddlmc.gptf@nhs.net.
Vacancies. The latest job vacancies are here .
Up and coming Derbyshire Education Network dates:
DEN - Networking Session for Locum GP's - Virtual via Teams Wednesday 28th October – Afternoon.
GPN Speciality Training Programme GPTF Derbyshire, along with HED still have 1 place available for a trainee GPN to commence the New to GPN Speciality Training Programme commencing Jan 2021 (Attachments D, E and F). If any practices are interested, please contact ddraycott@nhs.net - documents attached.
We are also able to take details from any practices who may be looking to recruit a new GPN in the next 12-24 months in order to secure places on the De Montfort GPN training course.
OTHER UPDATES
Teledermatology Advice and Guidance. Dr Ruth Cooper has asked us to share the information from Grace Housden at Consultant Connect grace.housden@consultantconnect.org.uk including a link to a recent webinar with Dermatology Consultants https://vimeo.com/458614870/31cd9aefa2
RCGP Paediatrics top tips: COVID-19 relating to children and young people. The RCGP have produced a useful short update for GPs treating children with URTI’s during the pandemic (Attachment G) or here .