DDLMC WEEKLY UPDATE 09/08/2022
Thank You to Derby & Derbyshire General Practice
We would like to start this week’s newsletter with a huge thank you on behalf of our system partners to every practice across the county for their support and flexibility shown this week. Each and every one of you have helped to ensure continued care to your patients is delivered effectively and safely.
Nationally, work continues on fixing the ongoing system problems for 111/OOH/DHU and we will keep you updated.
Heat Wave Assurance Measures
Please see the link below for a summary of the measures being taken by Partners/Providers to mitigate the effects of the elevated temperatures anticipated during the coming days.
20220719-Heat Wave Assurance Measures.pdf
We know that hot weather increases health care demand and one of the groups most at risk of admission are those with chronic respiratory conditions. Patients and their carers have been encouraged to ensure they have the correct medication and knowledge of how to use it. Please could you try wherever possible to proactively communicate with this cohort to ensure they are given the best possible chance of avoiding an admission. ARRS staff (in particular Pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians and Care Coordinators) are particularly well placed to be able to do this so please enable them to focus on this work in the short term wherever possible.
CQC: Updates and Changes to Registration
We have been notified that some practices’ CQC registration is not up to date, therefore we are asking all to ensure their registration with the CQC is up to date. The links below are to the forms to be completed, which can be made via the portal on the CQC website or downloaded and posted
https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-providers/notifications
https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-providers/registration/provider-application-add-partner
https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-providers/registration/provider-application-remove-partner
NHS Digital Appointment Data
General Practice appointment data is now available for Derby & Derbyshire Appointments in General Practice - NHS Digital. We have created a resource that can be used on your social media, waiting rooms and can be shared with your PPG.
We will cascade these via the weekly update on a monthly basis as the data is available. We would greatly appreciate any feedback on the data we are showing, and any amendments or additions you would like to see.
DERBY DERBYSHIRE GENERAL PRACTICE APPOINTMENT DA_2061693863 (1).pdf
EMAS HCP Local Information
Dr Ben Milton, DDLMC Medical Director and Chief Executive, recently met with Dr Leon Roberts, Executive Medical Director for EMAS to raise concerns about ambulance response times for General Practice and patients being in a ‘place of safety’. Dr Leon Roberts, has assured Ben that ‘place of safety’ does not exist.
Dr Roberts further states: “The clinician with the patient is best placed to call the HCP line to book any emergency conveyance for any patient and additional clinical information can be added to be highlighted to the control room clinicians. The call taker is not a clinician and so will not interpret things like BP and SpO2 and GCS, etc.”
We have attached a poster that contains the HCP phone number. Please let us have any feedback at ddlmc.office@nhs.net so we can continue to raise issues with EMAS.
PCSE Monthly Update
Scheduled Maintenance on PCSE Online
“Please note that you will be unable to access PCSE Online from 7pm until 9.30pm this evening, Thursday 4th August whilst we implement a system update.”
PCSE have released their GP Practice monthly update for July 2022
Access to Health Records Act Guidance - Deceased Patients
In line with recent GP contractual changes made by NHS England, GP Practices are no longer required to print off digitised records and send them to PCSE after the death of an individual. However, PCSE will continue to collect any legacy paper Lloyd George records.
As of Monday 1 August 2022, GP practices are required to respond to Access to Health Records Act requests for deceased patients and action accordingly. PCSE have developed a series of FAQs for further information on this.
Who can make an AHRA request?
The ethical obligation to respect a patient’s confidentiality extends beyond them passing away. The Access to Health Records Act 1990 (AHRA) provides a small amount of people with the right to access this information:
- a personal representative (the executor or administrator of the deceased person's estate)
- someone who has a claim resulting from the death (this could be a relative or another person)
Please note: Only information directly relevant to a claim will be disclosed.
All applicants will need to provide some documents to be able to access the records.
What if we have already sent the medical records back to PCSE for storage?
You remain responsible for the AHRA request but will need to contact PCSE to request the records using our Contact Us form and selecting Subject Access Request and then ‘Information Services Request’.
What information should the records hold?
On behalf of NHS England, the NHS GP Practice medical records for patients who have passed away should include information about:
- medication
- allergies
- vaccinations
- previous illnesses
- test results
- hospital discharge summaries
- appointment letters
- referral letters
Sometimes these records don’t always contain a full medical history.