DDLMC WEEKLY UPDATE 01/12/22
DDLMC UPDATES
ENGLAND LMCS CONFERENCE SUMMARY FEEDBACK
As we wrote in last week’s newsletter the DDLMC delegation attended England LMCs conference at Friends House in London. See posted newsletter for further details.
ACCESS TO RECORDS
The accelerated access to online medical records was due to be turned on 30th November. Here at DDLMC, we have been liaising with the GPC who have been lobbying with NHS England for changes to be made. The BMA have released this press statement confirming that NHS England have halted the switch on for those that wish it to be delayed. There is continuing engagement between GP IT system suppliers, the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and other stakeholders to confirm the next steps. We will continue to keep practices updated of any changes.
The BMA’s full update and FAQs can be read here.
To summarise, if you are happy to proceed and haven't sent in a template letter, await further communication from your system supplier. If you don't want to proceed you should send in a template letter if you haven't done so already.
The only other news that has formally come to light is that the prospective access will be set to occur from the date a practice goes live, rather than fixed to being 1st November.
TOP TIPS FOR PREVENTING ABUSE OF GENERAL PRACTICE STAFF
General Practice staff have also been dedicated to patient care, delivering high quality care and have been at the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NHS faces significant pressures and an increase in demand that is stretching the system far beyond limits it has ever seen.
As waiting times increase and the backlog remains unresolved the attitude of some people towards the NHS is changing.
GPs and practice staff are facing mounting aggression, abuse, and violent behaviour from patients. Furthermore the opening up of alternative ways of working via telephone and online consultations has opened up new avenues for patient abuse.
Please see our handy guide attached.
KRAFT HR
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We wanted to highlight a couple of employment tribunal cases that we feel may be relevant to General Practice.
A recent case at Employment Tribunal is extremely relevant to Primary care as it concerns a GP Receptionist who wanted to work remotely during the pandemic due to her clinical vulnerability but was not allowed: This case highlights the absolute importance of properly investigating, managing and documenting reasonable adjustments for disability. If you have disabled employees, or employees with health conditions, please do ensure that you investigate whether adjustments are required and fully document what you do because of this and ensure you are not putting yourselves at risk of failing to make reasonable adjustments. If you need help, Kraft HR is ready and experienced in these issues.
You may also have heard about Harper Trust vs Brazel: Holiday pay: Harper Trust v Brazel | Employer Perspectives There is some confusion as the decision relates to workers who only work part of the year and the 12.07% calculation for holiday pay. This applies to the holiday pay entitlement under the Working Time Regulations of 4 weeks plus bank holidays. If you have employees on term time contracts or employees on zero hours contracts who work variable hours throughout the year, this judgement is relevant to you and you will need to review the way you calculate holiday pay, if you currently use 12.07% to do so. As ever, if you are confused about holiday pay, entitlement and how to treat part-time workers, you are not alone! Kraft HR get queries about these regularly and are well placed to help ensure that your holiday calculations are correct according to the law and help you manage this when/if it causes you problems.
*reproduced with the kind permission of Kraft HR Consulting Ltd ONLINE APPOINTMENT BOOKING The Digital First Primary Care team have published new guidance for practices on requirements for online appointment booking following changes to General Medical Services (GMS). The new guidance can be found on the NHS England website. The guidance explains to General Practice the different types of appointment which could be included for online booking and what methods can be used to categorise them. The suggested appointment types listed in this document are for practices to consider, as individual practice population needs can vary significantly. This list should not be seen as mandatory or exhaustive. If you have any questions related to the guidance or the new requirements, please contact us at england.digitalfirstprimarycare@nhs.net |
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LOCAL UPDATES
CQRS LOCAL – DDICB CURRENTLY NOT IMPLEMENTING
You may have received correspondence relating to the launch of CQRS local. We have discussed this with Derbyshire ICB and have been assured that they are not going to be changing their Locally Enhanced Service Claim portal to CQRS Local.
DDICB have declined use of the claim service.
PREPARING FOR INDUSTRIAL ACTION
Update below from Jane Warder regarding the upcoming RCN strike
As a large provider of community health services across Derby and Derbyshire, many of our nursing and other colleagues deliver integrated services in conjunction with partners such as local general practices and schools, for example. It’s therefore important for such partners to be aware of DCHS employees’ legal entitlement to take strike action, should they choose to. Picket lines should not be formed on non-DCHS sites. At present we have no confirmation of probable strike dates, but once we do colleagues may be asked if they intend to take part through conversations within their local teams. Whilst it will be helpful to collate this information, we must acknowledge that colleagues choosing to take part are not formally required to confirm their intentions before the action takes place.
We’ll continue to work closely with our staff partnership colleagues (union representatives) to plan this action in a way that keeps disruption of services to a minimum. And we’ll be reiterating to members of the public that they should continue to come forward for care and treatment unless they hear from us.
FAST TRACK GUIDANCE FOR REFERRING CLINICIANS
Sent on behalf of Brigid Stacey – Chief Nurse & Deputy Chief Executive – Derby & Derbyshire ICB
Please find attached the 'Guidance Checklist to Support Clinicians in determining Fast Track Eligibility'. This guidance has been developed to assist Clinicians to determine whether it is appropriate to complete the Fast Track - Continuing Healthcare Application. We hope that this will further support attempts to ensure this pathway is used appropriately. We would be grateful if you could ensure that all clinicians who are involved in completing Fast Track to Continuing Healthcare referrals receive it, read it and are urged to refer to it, considering each question, prior to completing a Fast Track referral.
Also attached is the CHC service Fast Track training slides. Should staff identify a training need regarding Fast Track to CHC the team will be very happy to arrange training sessions.
Your continued support is much appreciated.
If anyone wishes to discuss any queries or concerns please contact Nicola MacPhail Assistant Director of Quality (CHC, Care Homes, End of Life & Personalisation) nicola.macphail@nhs.net
TELEPHONY BASELINING EXERCISE/RETURN REQUIRED BY WEDNESDAY 7 DECEMBER 2022
Work is ongoing to establish a national procurement framework for advanced (cloud-based) telephony solutions, planned to be live from January 2023. This will support you in the future procurement of a telephony solution, ensuring value for money investment in a fit for purpose solution that meets the national specification. There may also be an opportunity to access additional revenue funding (to be confirmed) to support you with buy-out costs should you wish to exit your existing contract early.
Whilst some information is known on the solutions in use and associated exit costs this does not cover every practice in England. It is critical that the national team have a complete picture of the national telephony estate, and in particular exit costs, to assess the requirement and support access to potential additional funding. The data gathering exercise does therefore include a question related to contract exit costs which we urge you to complete if possible.
Please compete this short baselining questionnaire by Wednesday 07 December 2022. The questionnaire has been pre-populated with any information you may have provided in the past which should be checked and amended as necessary.
If you have any further questions regarding the survey or difficulties in making a return, please contact necsu.adtelephony@nhs.net for support. We appreciate your time and thank you in advance for your submissions.
PCSE & NATIONAL UPDATES
NHS ACCELERATED ACCESS STATUS UPDATE
EMIS Statement Wednesday 30th November 2022
NHS England (NHSE) and BMA issued updates on Accelerated Access last night. The updates are available to view on the NHS Digital website and the BMA website.
The parties have agreed that those who have opted to pause will not proceed to roll out at this time (Cohort 2).
Those GP practices that have not opted to pause (Cohort 1) will be included in a future roll out plan unless they subsequently decide to pause (as detailed in the NHSE and BMA updates).
We are working on a roll out plan and we will communicate our approach and proposed practice roll out date to those in Cohort 1, on a practice by practice basis.
Any communications on this topic should be sent to aapostpone@emishealth.com and not our Support desk.
PRIMARY CARE HEALTH AND WELLBEING ENGAGEMENT EVENT – JANUARY 2023
NHS England would like to invite all primary care colleagues to join our sixth free, online health and wellbeing event on 12 January at 5.00pm-6.30pm. This session will be dedicated to exploring the role of Wellbeing Guardians and Health and Wellbeing Champions and will look at how primary care can embed Wellbeing Guardians and Health and Wellbeing Champions across their networks to help foster a culture of wellbeing. Please use the link below to sign up and note the date in your diary.
PRIMARY CARE COACHING
We are keen to support our primary care staff to stay well, recognising the additional pressures and challenges that the winter period brings. Please see attached our updated Looking After You coaching communications toolkit and promotional poster.
All the promotional resources can be downloaded here: www.bit.ly/LAYcomms
The toolkit outlines our suite of support offers, why coaching is recommended, feedback from users, and highlights the many promotional resources that can be used, including bulletin copy and social media graphics.
Please do cascade and share widely amongst colleagues – over 8,000 staff have benefited from one (or more) of these services. If you have any further questions don’t hesitate to contact england.lookingafteryou@nhs.net.
Additional support offers available for our NHS people can be found at: NHS England » Support available for our NHS people
BMA MARKET RESEARCH
At the BMA we are reviewing our support services to the GP community. Right now our focus is GP partners, but we are looking at how we better support GP locums and salaried doctors, too.
The BMA provides HR and employment law support to GP partner members and their practices. In response to feedback, we are considering ways to develop this service – either through enhancing current services, e.g. longer opening hours, or through introducing new services, e.g. supporting a practice through important/regulatory inspections.
To ensure the new proposition will meet their needs, the insight team is conducting interviews with GP partners and practice managers to get their feedback on the new proposition, and see whether we could provide anything else to help them in their daily work. In each nation, we’d like to speak to:
- GP partner committee members,
- GP partner members and non-members, and
- practice managers
The market research will be based on a brief paper outlining the services, and a questionnaire interview between 45-60 mins long.