Welcome
Welcome to the July edition of the NHS South Yorkshire Primary Care Bulletin.
We wanted to start by mentioning the latest round of Industrial Action and to thank all of our primary care colleagues for your support during this difficult time.
As everyone will know, since our last bulletin in June, we now have a new Government and we are likely to see a renewed emphasis on some of the big issues affecting the NHS. We welcome early indications from Wes Streeting, the new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, around his priorities around growth in primary and community care, which align with our own Primary Care strategy for South Yorkshire.
In other news, we await the outcome of the ballot for collective action for GPs which closes on 29 July. In the meantime, ICB primary care colleagues have been meeting with LMC colleagues, in order to assess the likely impact on services.
Lastly, just to update you on the primary and secondary care interface work, representatives from the PCPA have continued to work with secondary care colleagues through a task and finish group that has both clinical and managerial representation. We’ve had good engagement from both the Acute Federation and Mental health alliance. We’re keen to further develop clinical engagement with secondary care colleagues. Specifically the group have worked up guidance on:
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Prescribing from secondary care
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Fit Note/sick note provision
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Onward referral in secondary care.
Each of the local trusts has submitted their position on the Interface assessment tool for onward referrals, Complete care, call and recall and clear points of contact. The ICB is in the process of collating results. We anticipate that there may be contractual requirements for secondary care providers that need to be overcome in order to support the desired approach around onward referrals. Once identified these will be picked up with the ICB.
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
Items covered in this edition include:
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Global IT outage
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Sheffield school first to be awarded ‘asthma friendly’ status
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How’s Thi Ticker team wins national Public Health award
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South Yorkshire trusts recognised at 2024 HSJ Digital Awards
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South Yorkshire Innovation Showcase programme
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UKHSA Health Protection Briefing Note: Extensively-drug resistant gonorrhoea in London
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New medical certificate of cause of death (MCCD)
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Appointing and monitoring the Selective Neonatal Hepatitis B Immunisation Programme (babies born to Mother’s infected with Hepatitis B)
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Information about Acute Kidney Injury and Preventing AKI’s
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Reminder for GPs: Educational Podcast and Webinar Series
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Sarcoma awareness month
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Pharmacy First Newsletter
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Pharmacy First Lunch & Learn session 31 July
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Sharing excellence in Practice and innovation
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Health Innovation Network Polypharmacy Programme
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NHS South Yorkshire webinars and events
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Hepatitis C GP work
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General Practice Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) Pilot
NEWS UPDATES
Global IT outage
Systems are now back online but some features like GP connect may or may not be available. EMIS are working through and restarting services to try and improve performance.
NHS South Yorkshire IT Helpdesk and CASO Team is available if needed.
If you haven’t already you may wish to share further comms with your patients via your social media channels to advise of anticipated ongoing disruption. Below is a draft message you may wish to use or adapt depending on your situation which is based on current NHS England comms:
DRAFT SOCIAL MEDIA MESSAGE TO PATIENTS (FOR PRACTICE AMENDMENT)
‘The global IT outage on Friday caused major disruption with our patient record system, EMIS Web. Services are coming back online but functionality continues to be limited and work continues nationally to resolve this. The practice is open and patients should attend appointments unless told otherwise but [add practice detail here e.g…we are unable to book new appointments…]. You can contact the practice by phone if it’s urgent, and otherwise please use your local pharmacy, NHS111 online or call 111 for urgent health advice as normal. Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience this is causing and please bear with us until services are fully operational again ’
If you require any further support please contact IT helpdesk or the Primary Care Team.
Sheffield school first to be awarded ‘asthma friendly’ status
A school in Sheffield is the first in the city to be certified ‘asthma friendly’ by the South Yorkshire Children and Young People’s Alliance.
The South Yorkshire Asthma Friendly Schools initiative, led by the South Yorkshire Children and Young People’s Alliance, aims to improve the care of pupils with asthma by raising awareness through information, training and support for school staff as well as pupils, parents and carers.
How’s Thi Ticker team wins national Public Health award
Barnsley’s How’s Thi Ticker team has won this year’s Local Government Chronicle (LGC) Public Health award.
How’s Thi Ticker is an evidence-based, community blood pressure check campaign, which brings free blood pressure checks directly to our communities.
South Yorkshire trusts recognised at 2024 HSJ Digital Awards
South Yorkshire health organisations were flying the flag for the region, with four local NHS trusts recognised for their pioneering digital innovations at this year’s HSJ Digital Awards.
South Yorkshire Innovation Showcase programme
The South Yorkshire Innovation Showcase is a new initiative that aims to recognise and celebrate the strength of our local health and care system by showcasing examples of good practice and sharing great ideas that could be scaled up to benefit our communities.
We would love to hear about the innovative projects you or your colleagues have been leading. All you need to do is complete this brief Innovative Practice Form by midnight on 29 July - it should only take about 10 minutes.
Find out more here: South Yorkshire Innovation Showcase 2024: Celebrating innovative practice (sharepoint.com)
PRACTICE SUPPORT
UKHSA Health Protection Briefing Note: Extensively-drug resistant gonorrhoea in London
Please see here a briefing note from UKHSA in relation to Extensively-drug resistant gonorrhoea in London.
New medical certificate of cause of death (MCCD)
DHSC has published updated guidance on how organisations can get the new MCCD. The reforms to death certification and the introduction of medical examiners will start on Monday 9 September.
Appointing and monitoring the Selective Neonatal Hepatitis B Immunisation Programme (babies born to Mother’s infected with Hepatitis B)
Information about Acute Kidney Injury and Preventing AKIs
The National Kidney Federation has two patient information leaflets about Acute Kidney Injuries available for primary care. Written by specialists these two leaflets explain all about what and Acute Kidney is and how to prevent future AKI’s.
The National Kidney Federation would be delighted if GPs would either display a few copies of these A5 leaflet in their surgery waiting rooms or signpost patients to our website at www.kidney.org.uk Hard copies of these leaflets can be requested by emailing helpline@kidney.org.uk We will be happy to mail them out to your practice.
Reminder for GPs: Educational Podcast and Webinar Series
The South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Cancer Alliance would like to remind you about their educational podcast and webinar series available on their website. These resources are designed to support your continued professional development and provide valuable insights into various medical topics.
The latest podcast episode explores the ‘Non Specific Symptoms (NSS) Pathway’ featuring Dr Steph Edgar and Dr Louise Merriman, both GPs and Clinical Leads for the Cancer Alliance. This episode offers an in-depth discussion on the NSS pathway and provides practical guidance.
Access the podcasts and webinars here.
Sarcoma awareness month
As it is Sarcoma awareness month the Cancer Alliance have shared the following clinical toolkit from Sarcoma UK’s website Education and training | Sarcoma UK.
Pharmacy First newsletter
Please click here for the South Yorkshire Pharmacy First Newsletter.
EVENTS & TRAINING
Pharmacy First Lunch & Learn session 31 July
NHS South Yorkshire are hosting a Pharmacy First Lunch & Learn session on Wednesday 31 July 12-12:30pm.
The session will provide an overview of the service:
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Clarity on the 3 elements: Clinical Pathways, Minor illness, Urgent medicine supply.
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Referral processes
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Current picture in South Yorkshire
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Work undertaken by SY ICB & CPSY
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Opportunity for feedback and questions.
The session is relevant to all staff working in general practice – including receptionists, pharmacists and GPs.
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The session will be held on MS Teams, and it will be recorded.
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We intend to run the session again in September (date tbc).
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The meeting link can be found below.
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Please email lucy.crowder1@nhs.net to request the link as a calendar invite, or with any questions/feedback.
Meeting ID: 328 791 946 400
Passcode: Uomfkc
Sharing excellence in Practice and innovation
Did you know that there is a programme of support and development for independent prescribers in primary care that is for the multi-professional workforce? Since 2019 the Primary Care workforce and training hub have been developing and rolling out a monthly education programme of clinical prescribing updates from contraception to acute pain and heart failure and more– covering all the topics that clinicians come across in their consultations in primary care.
They have expert speakers giving clinical and prescribing updates on a different disease each month – this supports primary care clinicians in knowing that they are providing the most up to date clinical care. 100% of attendees say that these updates improve their confidence and competence in prescribing and managing key health conditions.
They work in partnership across the 4 places and with the innovation hub.
All this and more is available via the SharePoint page: https://nhs.sharepoint.com/sites/msteams_85ed75/SitePages/Non-Medical-Prescribing-(NMP).aspx?CT=1673001680881&CT=1674468528057&OR=OWA-NT&OR=OWA-NT&CID=94112470-06d2-3b81-6904-aee25ac289e2&CID=c6e1f780-7291-c1a2-12de-dc84e57f6a83
It would be great to see you at one of the events.
Health Innovation Network Polypharmacy Programme
A number of upcoming webinars and training opportunities for the primary care workforce in South Yorkshire relating to the Health Innovation Network Polypharmacy programme can be seen here.
NHS South Yorkshire webinars and events
Please click here for a list of webinars and events taking place in July, August, and September.
UPDATES FROM WIDER STAKEHOLDERS
Hepatitis C GP work
Did you know Hepatitis C has a 95% cure rate with modern antiviral treatment? NHS England has a national aim of eliminating hepatitis C as a public health threat in the UK by 2030.
GP Champions take an active role in Hep C case finding in primary care, as well as the clinical education of colleagues and supporting patients into care.
https://www.hepculater.com/professionals/general-practice/
The department of Infectious Diseases are looking for 1 or 2 GP champions to work in the Doncaster, Barnsley and Rotherham areas. This is a flexible, paid role, of between 2-4 sessions per month.
To express an interest / find out more, email either;
Anthony Bains, Hepatitis C Operational Delivery Network Manager
Dr Chris Bronsdon
Hepatitis C Champion, Sheffield
General Practice Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) Pilot
NHS England are looking for interested practices, groups of practices or PCNs to pilot the new PSIRF in General Practice. This is a great opportunity to shape PSIRF in General Practice as well as for practices to demonstrate your commitment to developing your safety culture.
More information and Slides re the pilot can be viewed here but if you wish to know more please contact the quality manager for PC in your Place:
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Ric Moreira for Sheffield r.moreira@nhs.net
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Margaret Clarke for Doncaster margaret.clarke1@nhs.net
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Kirsty Leahy for Rotherham kirsty.leahy@nhs.net
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Liz Lock for Barnsley elizabeth.lock3@nhs.net
You'll see the deadline for interest has probably passed by the time this is included within the bulletin, but don't worry about this, NHS England will still be keen to work with you.
