Welcome
Welcome to the April edition of the NHS South Yorkshire Primary Care Bulletin.
One item we wanted to highlight this month is the annual South Yorkshire Primary Care conference on Saturday 27 April which is free to attend. More information and the link to book is here and in the item below. The conference will be chaired by Andy Hilton and will suit a range of clinical colleagues as there are some very exciting speakers. Lunch will be provided to all those who attend, in addition to light refreshments throughout the course of the day. Don't miss this incredible opportunity to attend the best primary care event of the year!
Anthony Fitzgerald, Executive Place Director for Doncaster and Executive Lead for Primary Care, NHS South Yorkshire
Dr Andy Hilton, Chair, NHS South Yorkshire Primary Care Alliance
In this edition we cover the following items:
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NHS South Yorkshire shortlisted for an Employee Benefits Awards
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CYP Alliance Asthma Friendly Schools project shortlisted for the 2024 HSJ Partnership Awards
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South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Pathology (SYBP) Update
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Urgent suspected cancer referral form
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Measles guidance
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The Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag Action Checklist
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Safe and effective integration of physician associates into general practice
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Enhancing GP record updates from pharmacies (Update Record)
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New information for GPs on supporting patients with Long Covid
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Pharmacy First Newsletter
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Yorkshire and Humber Maternal Medicine Network
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Change of phone number for Yorkshire Ambulance Service Non-emergency Patient Transport Service (NEPTS) booking line
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Prescribing Memantine in General Practice Research Study
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Annual South Yorkshire Primary Care Conference
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Recommended Summary Plan for Emergency Care and Treatment
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South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Colorectal Diseases Meeting - Pathways to Impact in Bowel Cancer
NEWS UPDATES
NHS South Yorkshire shortlisted for an Employee Benefits Awards
We are delighted to share that NHS South Yorkshire has been shortlisted for the Employee Benefits Awards 2024.
The annual awards, which is in its 22nd year, acknowledge hard work carried out during 2023 by employers from a range of industries, recognising excellence in the reward, benefits and HR community, and celebrate organisations, teams and individuals that have made a significant impact through their reward and benefits strategies.
CYP Alliance Asthma Friendly Schools project shortlisted for the 2024 HSJ Partnership Awards
A joint project between South Yorkshire ICB, Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals and local schools, has been shortlisted for an award at the HSJ Partnership Awards.
The project, which is making local schools ‘asthma friendly’, was nominated for the Most Impactful Partnership in Preventative Healthcare award, which recognises outstanding dedication to improving healthcare and effective collaboration with partner organisations.
South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Pathology (SYBP) Update
Pathology services at Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust, Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust formed a new South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Pathology (SYBP) Partnership from 1 April 2024.
This follows an agreement by all five Trusts to strengthen pathology provision for patients, staff and service users. It will bring laboratory services across the Trusts into a single unified service as all regions move towards larger and more sustainable pathology network models in line with NHS England plans.
The formation of this new service will not in itself lead to any changes to how tests are requested or reported, and no action is required from service users at this time.
For further information please contact SYBP Transformation Director Andrew.turner14@nhs.net or SYBP Clinical Director Dr Jon Bury: jonathanbury@nhs.net
PRACTICE SUPPORT
Urgent suspected cancer referral form
Please note, that in line with national guidance, the old 2 week wait referral forms have now been renamed urgent suspected cancer referral forms. e-RS has also been updated to reflect this.
When referring patients through an urgent suspected cancer pathway, please explain that they will hear from the hospital within 4 weeks, and this may be by telephone or letter and may be to arrange an outpatient appointment or to arrange a further diagnostic test.
Check with the patient that they will be available within the next 4 weeks – e.g. check that they aren’t going on holiday etc. Please also make sure you include an up-to-date contact number for the patient on the referral form.
Measles guidance
The following measles guidance provides an overview of diagnosis, assessment and management for primary, community care, emergency departments and hospitals. It covers:
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clinical diagnosis of measles and differential diagnosis
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management of suspected or confirmed measles
all ages and all healthcare settings where measles is suspected.
The Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag Action Checklist
The Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag (RADF) Information Standard mandate applies to all health and publicly funded social care. It applies across NHS and independent providers, social care (as providers) as well as independent contractors such as GPs and dentists. It also impacts all health and care IT system suppliers.
We are currently in phase one of preparing for full implementation of the Reasonable Adjustments Digital Flag; we are asking organisations to prepare to conform to requirements of phase one from no later than April 2024. To support this we are sharing a checklist, so organisations can ensure that processes are in place to identify, record, flag, share, meet and review and update reasonable adjustment needs on their own systems and records. There is also an accompanying good practice resource package. You may have to sign up for a Future NHS account to access this information.
Organisations should ensure that they identify the disability and associated reasonable adjustment requirement of their existing registered or known patients or service users during routine appointments or interactions with the service.
The templates to do this are already available in both clinical systems (Emis and SystmOne).
All patients with a Learning Disability and/ or patients who are Autistic must have a Flag on their record to indicate this along with their reasonable adjustment needs, which is visible to all those who are involved in the care of the patient.
The RADF will appear on the patient’s record to indicate their disability and their reasonable adjustment needs, which is visible to all those who are involved in the care of the patient. This technology is in development, for now organisations should use their own systems.
Safe and effective integration of physician associates into general practice
Please read the following letter about ensuring safe and effective integration of physician associates into general practice teams through good practice. It provides updates on supervision, prescribing and role clarity. It sets out next steps with links to further guidance.
Enhancing GP record updates from pharmacies (Update Record)
New functionality to provide practices with structured information about pharmacy consultations for blood pressure checks, contraception and Pharmacy First (minor illness and clinical pathways) began a phased roll out w/c 25th March 2024.
We have not been given exact details of the phased roll out however practices should be aware that the post event notifications (details of the pharmacy consultations) will start to come in to workflow from some pharmacies but continue to come via NHS mail from others until all the pharmacy clinical systems are connected in a phased approached, this could be over the next few months.
New information for GPs on supporting patients with Long Covid
Charity Long Covid SOS has published a new leaflet endorsed by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) providing tips and advice for Long Covid diagnosis and symptom management.
Amitava Banerjee, Professor of Clinical Data Science and Honorary Consultant Cardiologist Institute of Health Informatics, University College London said, “This new, detailed yet accessible leaflet will be an important source of information and a great help to GPs who want informed, patient-led insights on how to support someone living with Long Covid, and to their patients who need to feel heard and cared for.”
Although much research has been carried out, many doctors are still uncertain how to treat Long Covid and patients are often given no medication, are misdiagnosed or worse, ignored completely. New survey data from Long Covid SOS shows over half (55%) of patients are unhappy with the care they’ve been provided by their GP. Only 14.4% of respondents had a positive interaction with their GP, saying that their GP was knowledgeable about the condition, and discussed treatment options. However, the new information from the charity is intended to provide support to both patients and GPs. It can be accessed here.
Pharmacy First Newsletter
Please follow this link to the March edition of the Pharmacy First Newsletter. This newsletter is distributed to all pharmacies and practices in South Yorkshire and aims to support the delivery of this service.
Yorkshire and Humber Maternal Medicine Network
The Yorkshire and Humber Maternal Medicine Network has created some short films, introducing the network and how to refer and also a separate film outlining the red flags of maternal illness in pregnancy.
The links to the films are below:
https://youtu.be/de1OwE0aaCo - Introduction
https://youtu.be/a-JysdEux10 - Red Flags
UPDATES FROM WIDER STAKEHOLDERS
Change of phone number for Yorkshire Ambulance Service Non-emergency Patient Transport Service (NEPTS) booking line
In a move to streamline the provision of phone services across Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust and improve service delivery, all phone lines are currently being migrated from the current provider to BT. As part of this process, some numbers are being changed and this includes the non-emergency Patient Transport Service (NEPTS) booking line.
From 15 April 2024 our non-emergency PTS booking telephone number will change to 0330 678 4000.
Anyone calling the old number will hear a message providing details of the new number to dial. For the first few weeks, callers will be transferred automatically, but after this point they will need to hang up and redial the new number.
GPs are kindly requested to update their records and ensure that any correspondence sent out contains the correct telephone number information.
In addition, please update any details about NEPTS on your websites and surgery premises.
It may also be helpful to remind patients/carers of the following information about NEPTS:
Most people should travel to and from their outpatient appointments independently, by private or public transport, with the help of relatives or friends if necessary.
NHS-funded transport is a limited resource, which is provided only for those patients who are unable to make their own way due to medical or mobility needs, such as needing to travel on a stretcher or needing support from PTS staff, in order to get into a vehicle or out of their own home.
For those who may not be eligible for NHS-funded transport, there are alternatives such as community transport. If you are concerned about the cost of your transport, then you may be eligible for help with travel costs; more information is available from the Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme.
Prescribing Memantine in General Practice Research Study
GPs are invited to take part in an academic research study. Mary Carter from the University of Exter is investigating prescribing for Alzheimer's in general practice and has received ethical approval from the University. It takes no more than 10 minutes to complete. For more information and a link to the survey visit http://tinyurl.com/4m83t95f.
EVENTS & TRAINING
Annual South Yorkshire Primary Care Conference 
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Saturday, 27 April 24
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9am – 3:30pm
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AESSEAL New York Stadium, New York Way, Rotherham, S60 1FJ
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Announcing the Inaugural South Yorkshire Primary Care Conference in Cardiometabolic Health!
Mark your calendars for April 27th – we're thrilled to announce an exciting event you won't want to miss. Primary Training Solutions are hosting the First Annual South Yorkshire Primary Care Conference, and we think you'll be interested in what we have in store. This FREE event plans to unite up to 150 General Practitioners, Nurses, and Pharmacists from diverse backgrounds to convene and exchange best practices on relevant topics in the medical field.
This years’ conference will be focused around Cardiometabolic Health and feature three sessions presented by industry experts, all led by our superb Chair, Dr Andrew Hilton:
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Dr. Rani Khatib: CVD Prevention – Challenges Delivering the ABC’s
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Dr. Patrick Holmes: Managing Type 2 Diabetes in 2024 and Beyond
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Dr. Matthew Capehorn: Epidemiology and Pathophysiology of Obesity
If you'd like to attend, simply click the following link to book your FREE place: First Annual South Yorkshire Primary Care Conference - https://bookwhen.com/primarytrainingsolutions/e/ev-sneo-20240427090000
We're also seeking sponsors for this groundbreaking conference. If you believe this aligns with your interests, please don't hesitate to email pts.clientcontact@gmail.com for further details!
For more information contact Natalie.mellor5@nhs.net
Recommended Summary Plan for Emergency Care and Treatment Training
Please see the following link for ReSPECT QI sessions in April, May, and July 2024.
South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Colorectal Diseases Meeting - Pathways to Impact in Bowel Cancer
The South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Cancer Alliance, together with colorectal experts from Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, invite you to join them for an impactful study day focusing on the latest updates in bowel cancer detection and care.
- Event: South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Colorectal Diseases Meeting - Pathways to Impact in Bowel Cancer
- When: Tuesday 25 June 2024, 9am – 4pm
- Where: Asseal New York Stadium, New York Way, Rotherham, S60 1FJ
This inaugural event in South Yorkshire brings together experts from across the region to discuss the latest advancements, share experiences, and explore innovative strategies in the management and treatment of colorectal diseases, particularly focusing on their implications for bowel cancer.
Please find detailed information about the event, including the agenda and speaker/ chairperson profiles, here.
Places at this event are complimentary thanks to generous charitable donations and are strictly limited to 150 delegates.
To register for this event, please click here.
We hope to see you there.
