GLP1 shortages and offer of educational support
IS HEALTHCARE FREE AT THE POINT OF DELIVERY SUSTAINABLE?
Providing healthcare free at the point of delivery means that individuals receive necessary medical services without having to pay out-of-pocket fees at the time of treatment. While free healthcare at the point of delivery can have numerous benefits, such as ensuring access to care for all individuals, it also poses challenges in terms of sustainability.
Introducing the digital SR1 form
The Gov.uk website now provides comprehensive information about the new SR1 form, replacing the DS1500 form. The SR1 form is designed to assist terminally ill patients with a life expectancy of less than 12 months in accessing expedited processing for various essential benefits.
To streamline the process, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has introduced a Digital SR1 Service in addition to an electronic version. This enables healthcare professionals to efficiently complete and submit SR1 forms online. To access the service, healthcare professionals must have an NHS smartcard and visit https://portal.national.ncrs.nhs.uk.
Implementing a triage system in general practice
As there is currently no standardised care navigation or triage system for GP practices, the BMA have developed a resource Care navigation and triage in general practice (bma.org.uk) that is designed to support general practices to implement a triage system if they wish to do so. Ensuring that patients are seen by the appropriate clinician in the right place and at the right time supports good patient care and experience, reduces pressure on GP practices and allows GPs to spend their time where it is needed the most. For practices interested in introducing care navigation and/or triage, GPC have provided a number of case studies along with two triage flowchart examples that can be tailored to suit your own practice.
DDRB pay recommendation and BMA response
The Government has announced its response to the DDRB recommendations for doctors’ pay in England Written statements – Written questions, answers and statements – UK Parliament .This announcement means that salaried GPs and all practice non-AARS staff in England will receive a 6% uplift on a consolidated basis. However, 6% is below inflation and further entrenches previous sub-inflationary uplifts. This fails to recognise the invaluable contribution and hard work of salaried colleagues and, whilst it may help retention a little, it does not go far enough.
ARRS staff will receive a funded uplift in line with Agenda for Change as in previous years. Read more about what it means for GPs here The BMA’s response to the DDRB’s pay recommendation for doctors in England – what this means for GPs (bma-mail.org.uk)
General practice responsibility in responding to private healthcare
GPC England has published guidance on general practice responsibility in Responding to private healthcare (bma.org.uk), to help practices reduce this extra workload.
Due to nearly 7.5 million people on NHS waiting lists in May 2023, patients are increasingly resorting to seeking private healthcare to deal with their health problems, which is adding extra workload for general practices. GPC guidance covers what the responsibilities are for general practices in response to private providers making requests, such as making private referrals, providing medical information about patients, organise further tests, issuing prescriptions, and onward NHS referrals.
Sessional GPs conference
The Sessional GPs conference will take place on Friday 22 September 2023 at BMA House and is free to BMA members with a cost of £75 plus VAT for non BMA members.
BMA sessional GP conference 2023
There will be a mix of plenary and workshop sessions, including: Health and well-being for sessional GPs; Gender Pay Gap; Pensions; Know your contract; Portfolio working; Dealing with complaints; Negotiation skills
GP premises – the rent reimbursement process
GP premises are essential to the delivery of NHS primary medical services and commissioners have the responsibility to make the necessary reimbursements for premises costs to GP contractors. This virtual training course, delivered by PCC over two sessions, will introduce the rent reimbursement process for GP practices, including the regulatory requirements and the different types of reimbursement available.
Tuesday 19 and Thursday 21 September 2023 (14.00-16.30)
Measles Outbreak
Several confirmed cases of measles have been notified in the Yorkshire and the Humber area and it is expected that this number will rise over the coming weeks.
To confirm infection take a buccal swab and send for Measles PCR using a COPAN E-swab (pink top and not a green top as stated in a previous letter).
Please note: Where COPAN E-swabs are not available please submit a dry swab in a plain universal sample pot. Specimens must not be sent in charcoal medium as this interferes with the PCR test. Please follow any separate advice that comes from your local NHS laboratory that reflects specific local arrangements.
Please note that exposure of any unvaccinated staff contacts is defined as face to face contact of any length of time or spending more than 15 minutes in a confined area with the case e.g. in the same clinical room. Staff should be excluded from work from the 5th day after the first exposure to 21 days after the final exposure unless they have satisfactory evidence of protection (measles IgG or two doses of a measles containing vaccine). Please make sure all health professionals and reception staff are fully protected against measles, mumps and rubella to protect staff and patients and to avoid lengthy exclusion periods applying.
Notification of measles cases to the Health Protection Team
While case numbers in Yorkshire and Humber remain low, all suspected measles cases should be promptly notified to the local Health Protection Team (HPT) on 0113 386 0300 to facilitate timely public health action, including urgent risk assessment of any vulnerable contacts.
Infection prevention and control
Please ensure that appropriate triage and isolation procedures are in place so that those presenting with a fever and rash can be isolated immediately, to avoid exposing others (including practice staff) and that all practice staff, including reception, are aware of measles symptoms and infection control measures. Measles posters and leaflets in a variety of languages are available here: Measles outbreak resources – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/measles-outbreak and here Measles pull up banner artwork – Health Publications.
Continue to promote MMR vaccination:
Please continue to identify patients who are not fully vaccinated with MMR and advise them to complete the course of vaccination.
- children should receive their two scheduled doses of MMR vaccine on time at the ages of 12 months and 3 years and 4 months
- the MMR vaccine can be given from six months of age before travel to a high risk country. As per guidance, MMR doses given before a child’s first birthday should be discounted.
- patients over the age of 3 years and 4 months who do not have two recorded doses of MMR vaccine should be caught up opportunistically. Practices are encouraged to work with their Child Health Information Services to actively identify and invite under vaccinated children aged 6 years and under. There is no upper age limit to offering MMR vaccine
- new entrants from abroad and newly registered patients should have their immunisation history checked as early as possible and missing doses caught up
- post-natal women should have their MMR status/history reviewed and offered any outstanding doses
The Our Future Health research programme
Our Future Health will be the UK’s largest ever health research programme, designed to enable the discovery and testing of more effective approaches to prevention, earlier detection and treatment of diseases.
Ensuring your local area is represented
Our Future Health will collect and link multiple sources of health and health-relevant information, including genetic data, across a cohort of up to five million people that truly reflects the UK population. This will create a world-leading resource for researchers to undertake discovery research on early indicators of disease. By ensuring that a diverse range of people participate in Our Future Health, we can make discoveries that benefit everyone. You can help us in that goal by ensuring your area is represented.
Registering your practice
Registering your practice to support the programme’s volunteer recruitment takes no longer than ten minutes and is a crucial step to representing your local area.
To register your practice or find out more visit: https://consent.mygp.com/our-future-health-programme/.Our Future Health SMS Programme – myGP Or email the team at hub@iplato.com
Benefits to participating
- Support advancements in key disease areas identified within your local population.
- Ensure your local community is adequately represented.
Sarah Webster, Operations Manager at Bolton Community Practice, said: “The sign-up process was easy and only took a few minutes to complete. We are excited to join any initiative which means better care and early diagnosis for our patients.”
“An SMS invite was sent to our patients many weeks ago about how to participate in the programme if interested. The process has been straightforward and after an initial influx of calls from patients, there has been no requirement for our reception or clinical teams to deal with anything as a result.”
iPLATO and Our Future Health’s partnership
To ensure adequate volunteer representation across regions, Our Future Health has partnered with iPLATO to seek support from practices to invite patients to join the research programme via SMS text message. iPLATO is contacting GP practices in your area and giving them the opportunity to opt-in to their patients receiving these invites.
Free Courses for doctors
Please see below for information on 3 FREE HEE Deanery courses for doctors who are off work or have recently returned. They are a good resource for mentors, trainers and appraisers to signpost to.
Return With Resilience:
Are you ready to return to work? Join us for a 2-day interactive workshop designed to equip you with all the tools you need to return to work with confidence, enhanced skills and a resilient mindset. We will show you how to:
- Measure your current resilience
- Take a deep dive into the psychology that supports improved mental wellbeing
- Master the core skills required for resilience
- Develop a bespoke toolkit to foster wellbeing and resilience for the rest of your career.
For more information and to book your free place use the links below
Friday 15th and Wednesday 20th September 2023 9.30 – 3.30pm
Friday 1st and 8th December 2023 9.30 – 3.30pm
Friday 9th and 23rd February 2024 9.30 – 3.30pm
How to Manage Difficult Conversations:
NHS staff have the most difficult roles because we regularly work with people who are frightened, upset and anxious and may project those feelings outwards. We are often required to give bad news. Other difficult consultations involve people with medically un-explained symptoms who may have been labelled as ‘heartsink patients’. Complex consultations such as these can generate negative feelings within us such as doubt, dread, fear, sadness and despair. As a consequence we may find ourselves leaving work feeling depleted and unable to recharge On this full day course you will learn how to manage difficult consultations in such a way that your wellbeing and the doctor-patient relationship remains intact. As a result you will consult more expertly and efficiently reducing the risk of complaints whilst re-kindling the joy of work
For more information and to book your free place use the links below
Friday 22nd September 2023 9.30 – 3.30pm
Friday 10th November 2023 9.30 – 3.30pm
Friday 26th January 2024 9.30 – 3.30pm
Friday 8th March 2024 9.30 – 3.30pm
How to Manage Conflict:
Most of our unhappiness is caused by conflict. External conflict directly mirrors where we need to work within the Self. When we are emotionally triggered we behave in an unconscious way and this contaminates all of our responses which in turn influence our environment leading to complaints and burnout. On this 1 day course you will learn how internal conflict is generated and the effect it has on you and those around you. You will also learn how to deal with any external conflict that arises in terms of de-escalation, harvesting the lessons of the interaction and reducing any negative impact on your wellbeing
For more information and to book your free place use the links below
Friday 6th October 2023 9.30 – 3.30pm
LMC Buying Group
Doncaster LMC is been a member of the LMC Buying Groups Federation. This means that practices can access the discounts the Buying Group has negotiated on a wide range of products and services. If you’re not sure what the Buying Group is all about then this short video explains what they do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FekMwFI5ILg.
By registering with the Buying Group: www.lmcbuyinggroups.co.uk/members/, you can view all the suppliers’ pricing, contact details and request quotes. The Buying Group also offers any member practice a free cost analysis which demonstrates how much money your practice could save just by swapping to buying group suppliers. Tel: 0115 979 6910 Email: info@lmcbuyinggroups.co.uk Website: www.lmcbuyinggroups.co.uk
