Page last updated: 5 May, 2021, 11:54am

Primary Care E-bulletin (Issue 139) – 5 May 2021

Welcome to the latest edition of our e-briefing to support GP practices across mid and south Essex.

If you think these e-briefings could be improved, please let us know how by sharing your feedback.

Previous bulletins can be found on the MSE healthcare professional website.

There is also a search function (located top-right of the website) to make it easy to find what you’re looking for.

In this Issue:

Fully funded albumin to creatinine ratio (ACR) testing for people with diabetes now available across all GP practices
REMINDER: MSE Interim Community Ophthalmology Service for Minor Eye Conditions (MECS)
MSE Training Hub: Forthcoming training opportunities and events
Are you a GP or ACP?
Palliative Care GatewayC Live webinars
Greener Practice Essex & Suffolk: reduce, reuse, recycle!
Your chance to inform staff training in primary care 
Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Week – 10-16 May 2021
We Are With You Service – confidential advice and support about drinking

Support with Day to Day Issues

Fully funded albumin to creatinine ratio (ACR) testing for people with diabetes now available across all GP practices

A smartphone app and home test kit enabling people to complete their annual urinary ACR test from home using their mobile phone camera is now available across all GP practices in the Mid and South Essex Health and Care Partnership. The partnership with health technology company Healthy.io will enable practices to engage with previously hard-to-reach patients and address any backlog in chronic disease management for people living with diabetes.

Key information:

Free for ALL GP practices in the Health and Care Partnership – every practice encouraged to sign-up for the service now
Improves uptake of ACR testing, quickly identifying at-risk patients
- Testing contributes towards the achievement of the patients’ routine Diabetes health checks/care processes
92% of people find the test ‘easy’ or ‘very easy’ to use, 96% preferred testing at home vs. testing at the clinic
Quick and easy to implement – time commitment per practice is 1 hour for set-up, after which the service will be fulfilled by Healthy.io
- I.G. approved across the health and care partnership
Releases practice capacity by outsourcing workload to Healthy.io

More information

MSE Interim Community Ophthalmology Service for Minor Eye Conditions (MECS)

Just a reminder that patients presenting to your surgery with the following eye conditions can be signposted to the MSE Minor Eye Conditions Community Service: -

Loss of vision including transient loss
Ocular pain
Differential diagnosis of red eye
Foreign body and emergency contact lens removal (not by the fitting practitioner)
Dry eye
Blepharitis
Epiphora
Trichiasis
Differential diagnosis of lumps and bumps in the vicinity of the eye
Flashes/floaters – recent onset
Patient-reported sudden onset field defects
Patients registered with a GP practice in mid and south Essex. The service will also accept referrals for those who are not registered with any GP but are residents within mid and south Essex and eligible to receive NHS-funded care.

More information

Education and Training

MSE Training Hub: Forthcoming training opportunities and events

Please follow the links below for more information:

To join the MSE Training Hub mailing list, please email: [email protected].

WANTED: verified supervisor of FCPs

Are you passionate about supporting the new roles working across primary care? Especially if you are a First Contact Physio or Paramedic. Would you be interested in becoming a trainer of Verification Supervisors for First Contact Practitioners (FCP)?

There is a new framework, called a roadmap, for supporting FCPs through training and regionally we are looking for an GP/Advanced Care Practitioner who would like to train up the verification supervisors of FCPs across the East of England.

Role criteria:

Must be a GP trainer/GP, Consultant level AHP, Advanced level practitioners with a full post graduate MSc in advanced clinical practice.

Must hold a full post graduate Masters degree and currently work in the area of practice that you will be supervising

Moving forwards ACP level practitioners verified and recognised by the Centre will be able to train to supervise FCP & ACP level practitioners. This includes ACP level staff who use the portfolio route for recognition by the Centre. (not yet active)

If you are interested and would like to hear more, please contact Leila Ronald-Jones: [email protected].

Palliative Care GatewayC Live webinars

Palliative Care for Cancer Patients

Weds 31^st March 1-2pm

Effective Telephone Consultations

Wednesday 21^st April, 1-2pm

New Types of Cancer Treatments and Their Effects (covers immunotherapy and targeted radiotherapy)

Weds 14^th May 1-2pm

GatewayC Live upcoming and recorded webinars can be accessed here.

For Information

Greener Practice Essex & Suffolk: reduce, reuse, recycle!

A group of GPs and other primary care professionals interested in promoting planetary health and reducing the environmental impact of GP surgeries invite you to join their next meeting on Wednesday 12th May 5.30-6.30pm to discuss how we can reduce waste in primary care, save money & save the planet. Please email [email protected] for more details.

Green quick win for practices: what do you do with the used batteries from medical equipment like thermometers and pulse oximeters? Batteries should not go in domestic waste so request a free batteries collection box here.

RCN Glove awareness week (3^rd-7^th May)

Appropriate glove use and hand hygiene is as important as ever but it’s also important to reduce unnecessary wastage. This year, during Glove Awareness Week, the RCN are encouraging members to reduce glove use safely using their ‘make one change’ approach. Guidance on safely reducing glove use is available online, along with a variety of materials for spreading the word on social media and in the workplace.

Your chance to inform staff training in primary care 

Health Education England and NHS England and NHS Improvement would like to hear from GP practice staff about their experiences of delivering remote triage (navigating patients to the right person at the right time), online, telephone and video consultations in general practice to improve future training packages.

If you would like to participate or find out more about the study visit https://bit.ly/3dyYp19

Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Week – 10-16 May 2021

Public Health England has made available a toolkit of digital media to help raise awareness of Type 2 diabetes and to encourage people to check their risk online using Diabetes UK’s Know Your Risk tool.

For more info visit: https://campaignresources.phe.gov.uk/resources/campaigns/72/resources/5690

We Are With You Service – confidential advice and support about drinking

With You has launched an Over 50s Alcohol Helpline which provides advice and support to individuals aged over 50, concerned others, and professionals, who are worried about their own or someone else’s drinking.

The Over 50s Alcohol Helpline now offers an enhanced service for individuals who are considering making changes to their alcohol use. The enhanced service provision offers callers up to 4 additional appointments, during which time Helpline alcohol advisors use evidenced-based interventions to support callers to achieve their goals.

More information

NHS Primary Care COVID-19 Bulletin

Click here to access NHS England’s latest primary care COVID-19 bulletins.

For the latest advice and guidance around coronavirus for clinicians, please visit the NHS England website.