DDLMC WEEKLY UPDATE 29nd OCTOBER 2020
NATIONAL UPDATES
NHS111 First and Direct Booking. The contractual requirement to provide 1 appointment per 500 patients continues to cause issues in practices. While we continue to lobby on your behalf nationally, we would remind you that this is a maximum and if the appointments are not be used you can reduce the allocations accordingly. We would encourage you to ensure you have the evidence to support any reductions. The roll out of NHS 111 First is also of real concern and we are actively trying to ensure that the general practice voice is heard and listened to.
Influenza immunisation FAQs (England). NHSE/I have now produced a set of FAQs relating to the influenza immunisation programme and these can be found here. There is also an additional £15.4m of funding (£12.2m for GP practices and CCGs) to cover reasonable additional costs (over and above the usual fee structures) associated with this year’s extended flu programme. However, the criteria are fairly narrow and are restricted to contributions towards the costs of:
• additional venue hires and associated costs (signage, external temporary shelters)
• additional fridges/mobile cold storage.
Claims will not be authorised for costs that are already funded via other routes, such as other national funding streams, the vaccination Item of Service fee, existing GP contract or CCG funding or locally agreed contracts. The funding will therefore not cover:
• additional staff costs
• routine vaccination consumables ie syringes, disposal of sharps
• PPE
• communications and advertising.
LOCAL UPDATES
Electronic Repeat Dispensing. Thank you to those of you who contacted us after last week’s update. We do completely understand that eRD is not suitable in all circumstances (not least dispensing practices) and we did acknowledge that in the comments last week. However, since the responsibility for the prescription resides with the prescriber (which in the majority of cases is of course the GP) my comment “why wouldn’t you” was perhaps a flippant understatement of the complexities involved and I’m sorry if it trivialised the issue. The fact remains, that in certain circumstances, and with appropriate checks and balances in place, eRD could potentially reduce GP workload and we would encourage practices to look at its utility.
GP TASK FORCE DERBYSHIRE
The New to Practice Fellowship Programme is a programme of support, learning and development supported by national funding available to every newly qualified GP. Our Derbyshire programme will meet the needs of newly qualified GPs and fund them to attend professional development sessions, thereby ensuring a smooth transition into independent practice.
You can find more about the Derbyshire Scheme by watching this short video hosted by the GPTF team. If you have more questions, please join us for a Q+A webinar on Wednesday 4th November at either 1pm or 8pm to find out more about the scheme
Please email ddlmc.gptf@nhs.net for a webinar invite. Questions can be submitted in advance and the webinar will be recorded.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in Derbyshire. Thanks to support from DDCCG, JUCD and HED an exciting opportunity has arisen for a GP working in General Practice in Derbyshire to work with GPTF in supporting equality, diversity and inclusion in general practice. If you are interested please see the details here; the deadline for expressions of interest is 13th November 2020.
LMC/GPTF Regular Webinar. Date for the diary Weds 25th November 2020 at 11:00. Please join Claire and I for a coffee (bring your own as it will be virtual!) and an update on the state of general practice. I am developing a session on empowering general practice staff and encouraging all of the fantastic people we have working in GP in Derbyshire and hope many of you will join us. Further details to follow.