COVID-19 UPDATE BRIEFING DDLMC – 27.05.2020
STOP PRESS
LMC Webinar. Firstly, can I apologize for today’s webinar which was an abject lesson in how not to use Microsoft Teams and apologies to those who couldn’t get in as we understand several people were waiting on the Zoom login. We will ensure we have a better understanding of the Teams functionality before we decide if we will use it again.
Thank you to Vanessa from CQC for taking the time to provide the update and thank you to those who provided feedback - we are sorry that it was so disjointed. One thing to clarify is that the ESF phone calls are only for those practices that are deemed to be very high risk (after filtering by your own Inspector).
The slides are here and Vanessa has also kindly provided a link to the FAQs . We are planning to re-run the webinar next Wednesday so you can ask questions. Please confirm if you think that would be useful and we will confirm the login details a bit nearer the time.
We have also dealt with the issue of the data that was shown for a short while with the practice concerned and we are unfortunately unable to share the recording of the meeting. Sorry.
NATIONAL UPDATES
New coronavirus life assurance scheme. On 27 April a new life assurance scheme was introduced covering health and social care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Details of the scheme have now been published which entitles any frontline healthcare workers to a lump sum of £60,000 in the event of death. This is in addition to Death in Service benefits linked to the pension schemes.
Reminder – GPES. The deadline for the GPES Data Collection for COVID-19 Pandemic Planning & Research is today. You can access CQRS via this link - https://login.cqrs.nhs.uk/cas/login . The ‘offer’ can be found in Financial Year 2020/2021 services under “Participation Management”. Any queries to support@cqrs.co.uk .
New to Partnership 20k Incentive Scheme. We have received a number of queries about this scheme and have been assured by NHSE and GPC that the full details are about to be published. As soon as we hear we will share with you and NHSE/GPC have confirmed that these will apply to those who are new to partnership from 1st April 2020.
LOCAL UPDATES
DCHS Update on Steroid injections during COVID-19. DCHS physiotherapy and MSK services are following the National Guidance , which states that steroid injections should only be given if urgent and there is no suitable alternative. All referrals will be assessed and where possible alternative treatments offered. If an injection is indicated and agreed with the patient, the patient will be added to a suspended waiting list and contacted when injection clinics are reinstated in line with any updated guidance. As yet there is no indication when this will be. In order to manage patient expectations, please could patients be informed of the current process when referring for injection. Any queries to Susan Buckley at DCHS on susan.buckley6@nhs.net
Urgent update on F Calprotectin. We notified you on Friday that F Calprotectin referrals had been suspended at UHDB and CRH. While this is true for Derby and Chesterfield Hospitals, the path lab at Burton Hospital is still taking referrals as they send their samples to a different lab. The switchboard number is 01283 566 333.
Orthotics Service. Further to the update on Wednesday 20th May we have now received more details on the new service (Attachment A). The CCG have also provided a copy of the referral form (Attachment B) and confirmed that NECS will upload a template into clinical systems.
Mental Health and Wellbeing Support. In addition to the update about adult services last week the CCG and JUCD have now provided an update (Attachment C) for services for Children, Young People, Parents and Carers during the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Suspected Lung Cancer Referrals To Secondary Care. The COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in a significant reduction in suspected lung cancer referrals, due to fewer people presenting to their GP with respiratory symptoms and fewer chest X-rays being performed, despite diagnostic capacity. See Attachment D.
OTHER UPDATES
COVID-19 Acutely Unwell Patients in Care Homes. PHE, NHS and Adult Social Care have provided a useful update (Attachment E) to support the treatment of care homes residents who become acutely unwell with COVID-19.
CQC Scam. We have been alerted to a potential scam where a caller phoned a GP practice in another part of the country pretending to be a CQC inspector in order to try and get information about staff. The motive is not known but please let your staff know to remain alert to such approaches.
BMA COVID-19 Tracker Survey GPs/Doctors ONLY. The latest version of the BMA tracker survey is here until Thursday afternoon. Completion will help the BMA push for improvements/safeguards and they have widened the questions out to include ones on contract changes/pay, second spike, wellbeing, remote working, thoughts on less bureaucracy/regulation during COVID and more!
Screening & Immunisation Team (SIT) Update. NHS update (Attachment F)
PUBLIC MESSAGES
The CCG have asked us to share the following with you:
Practice Website Updates
Tomorrow, NHS England’s ‘Help us Help You’ campaign focuses on primary care. Please can all practices add the attached image (Attachment G and H) to your practice website homepages and the following narratives to inform patients that (1) general practice is open and here to help and (2) explain how NHS services are changing in response to the pandemic.
- Derbyshire’s NHS is here to help you
(use attached imges for websit homepage)
During the coronavirus pandemic, our staff have been working hard to ensure that all patients who need urgent care – not just those with coronavirus – have been able to get it. To avoid unnecessary contact, some non-urgent appointments and surgeries have been postponed and others delivered differently using technology.
We will continue to ask patients to attend face-to-face services only when it is really necessary, and where it can be done safely without putting our patients, the public or our staff at greater risk of catching coronavirus. Where possible, appointments will continue to be offered using remote services such as a video or phone consultation.
If you feel unwell or have hurt yourself, you can still get the care and treatment you need. It’s vital that if you’re having a potentially life-threatening medical emergency, such as a heart attack, stroke or really bad flare up of asthma, you contact the NHS.
You might be worrying about a mole that’s changed shape, or grown larger, and think you need to contact your GP.
Everyone in the NHS really appreciates people taking pressure off services for conditions that can be safely managed with over-the-counter medicines, and taken care of at home.
But it is crucial that for anything else that you do not risk life or wellbeing – contact NHS 111 online or by phone, get in touch with your GP, visit an Urgent Treatment Centre, or for emergencies go to A&E or call 999.
Watch Dr Avi Bhatia’s Here to Help video . Dr Bhatia is a GP in Derbyshire and Chair of NHS Derby and Derbyshire Clinical Commissioing Group.
If you want to know how Derbyshire’s NHS services are changing in response to the pandemic visit: https://joinedupcarederbyshire.co.uk/public-info-covid-19/help-us-help-you
- COVID-19: Find out how NHS services are changing
(use attached imges for website homepage)
Are you wondering how NHS services such as GP practices, pharmacies, hospitals and community care are changing as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, then visit the Joined Up Care Derbyshire public website to find out more about local changes to health services, daily updates, FAQs and links to national advice.
AND FINALLY…
I thought we’d have something a bit more contemplative today. The poem If was written by Rudyard Kipling in 1895 and inspired by the character of Leander Starr Jameson, leader of the failed Jameson Raid against the Transvaal Republic to overthrow the Boer Government of Paul Kruger. I find this poem very inspirational but because of its Victorian origins, I was wary of sharing it in case the last line caused any offence. I did some research and concluded that it would be okay to share, when I discovered that Serena Williams had recorded a version of it for the 2017 International Women’s Day changing the last line to “You’ll be a woman, sister!”
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!