DAILY COVID-19 BRIEFING DDLMC – 21.04.2020
STOP PRESS
We were incredibly saddened last night to read about the death of respected local ED Consultant Mr Manjeet Singh Riyat, who contracted COVID-19. Manjeet was a well -respected father figure in the Emergency Department and the first A&E consultant in the country from the Sikh community. He was a trainer and mentor to many GPs who trained in Derby. There are some beautiful words of respect from his peers on the UHDB website here . The DDLMC team on behalf of general practice across Derbyshire would like to send our love and thoughts to his family and friends, and to the entire Emergency Department team who have lost a loved colleague; thank you for all you are doing at this incredibly difficult time.
This sad news follows on from the announcements of the deaths of Mr Amged El-Hawrani, an Associate Clinical Director and Ear, Nose and Throat Consultant at Queen’s Hospital Burton, Tamworth and Lichfield, who sadly passed away on 28th March, and Gladys Mujajati, a member of the Derby City Community Mental Health Team who lost her fight with COVID-19 last week. These are all devastating losses and our thoughts are with the families and friends of Manjeet, Amged and Gladys, as well as the numerous families across the country who have lost their loved ones to COVID-19 this year.
NATIONAL UPDATES
Toolkit for GP and practices. The BMA have provided an updated toolkit covering video consultations and homeworking, steps for GP practices to take, retired doctors returning to work, death certification and cremation, model terms for GPs including sessional GPs and refusing to treat where PPE is inadequate. I’ve shared this although I haven’t read it in detail yet and will highlight any important updates tomorrow (No doubt including death certification as we have also been having further discussion with the Senior Coroner)
HGV Medical. In order to reduce workload on GPs, the government has announced a temporary relaxation of the requirement for bus and lorry drivers to provide a doctor’s medical report (D4) in order to renew their licence. Driver, whose licence expires at any time in 2020, with no medical conditions that affect their driving will be able to apply for a temporary 1-year licence. Drivers will need to declare any health issues and if they prevent them from driving safely, they will not have their licence renewed. This temporary change will not apply to those making their first application for a Group 2 bus or lorry licence.
BEWARE Scam offers of PPE. NHSEI have notified us that there has been a number of unsolicited scams from alleged alternative sources of PPE, particularly gowns. Should you receive an offer from an unusual or alternative source, please contact the Cabinet Office before making any financial commitment: mohammad.butt@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Managing locally held vaccine stock in primary care and the use of Patient Group Directions in Primary Care Networks. Immunisation services have been identified as a vital service that must continue. There are no central supply issues of vaccine stock, but it may be for CCGs and/or PCNs to transfer locally held vaccine stock between providers to another to ensure the continued delivery of immunisation programmes. MHRA has confirmed that it would not prevent the transfer of locally held vaccine stock from the NHS routine immunisation services during COVID-19, provided that:
- the CCG, PCN or General Practice believes the transfer of vaccine(s) is necessary to support the continued delivery of routine immunisations in primary care during the COVID-19 response and will ensure the effective use of available resource;
- the CCG, PCN or General Practice that is holding the vaccine stock has assurance that the vaccine has been stored in the correct temperature-controlled conditions;
- confirmed daily record keeping of temperature monitoring is available;
- the CCG, PCN or General Practice that requires locally held vaccine supply can verify the assurances given; and
- the vaccine(s) can be transported appropriately under the right cold chain conditions.
Regional NHSEI commissioners should be informed of any incidents including cold chain breaches during transfer of vaccines. PHEs protocol for the ordering, storing and management of vaccines .
My Name Is…..Please see attached template for use on PPE.
LOCAL UPDATES
CRH Update
- Routine microscopy on all urine samples will cease today. Following publication of PHE guidance, the Microbiology laboratory at CRH will stop performing routine microscopy on all urine samples from Tuesday 21st April 2020 due to the potential for aerosol or droplet generation during the analysis process and potential risks to laboratory staff. Urine culture will continue as normal.
- Apologies yesterday, there was 2 attachments duplicated. There was meant to be 6 attachments, so all the information was complete, just one attachment was the same, apologies!
Finance Update. Unfortunately, the CCG encountered a problem late on Friday that meant that advance payments (May) for GMS practices for global sum, QOF aspiration and PCN participation were not processed. Alternative arrangements have been made but there will be a short delay in payments reaching bank accounts. (Tuesday 28th April rather than the Friday 24th April). The PMS practice advance payments were unaffected and were processed as planned. The details of the reconciliation process are still being worked on and we will share these when we have any further details.
NHS111 and CCAS. Work is still progressing to enable CCAS (noting this is effectively a separate system from NHS111). We have also been made aware that some practices have had patients turn up at the practice for face to face appointments pre-booked by NHS111. Practices may wish to consider not making these appointments directly available for NHS111 booking. The contractual requirement to make 1 in 500 appointments available will be met once CCAS is up and running.
Smears. A reminder that smears have definitely NOT been suspended nationally and invites are still going out. We’ve also confirmed that the lab will continue to process them. Please see attached guidance.
OTHER UPDATES
IT Warning – Increase in Phishing Emails
The CCG’s IT Team would like to alert you to an increase in ‘phishing’ emails. These appear to come from within the NHS, probably from a person you don’t know, and have a short message that may seem plausible. They then have a ‘click here’ link. Please never click on a link on any of these emails.
FREE Beyond Coaching Resilience Toolkit. This FREE toolkit is available for all NHS staff and key workers. It offers great coach-approach tools to support you in gaining clarity of thinking and self-managing wellbeing - as well as encouraging you to share it with others, including staff and patients they are working with.
AND FINALLY…
I had a really good parody of guidance about social distancing for today but I can’t find it, which perhaps summarises quite well the information overload we are all suffering from.
I’m off to read the updated BMA death certification guidance in preparation for tomorrow as I’ve run out of old episodes of Midsomer Murders to watch, which is another of my guilty pleasures.
Stay safe.