Primary Care E-bulletin (Issue 39) - 27 May 2020

IN THIS ISSUE:

• Antibody testing programme roll out
• The NHS is here for you: cancer referrals
• Urgent dental care
• Post-treatment cancer patient care from mid and south Essex hospital trust
• Mid and south Essex partnership update
• Primary care in care homes during COVID-19 webinar
• How-to guide: face-to-face clinics
• Virtual conference on stress-resistance and resilience
• National flu immunisations programme 2020/21
• NHS cervical screening restoration guidance
• NHS staff discounts

Support with day-to-day issues

Antibody testing programme roll out

The government has announced the start of a major new national antibody testing programme, with plans to provide antibody tests to NHS and care staff in England from the end of May.

Details of local arrangements are yet to be confirmed, we will update you as soon as we receive any further information.

REMINDER – information about all COVID-19 testing sites is available on this website

The NHS is here for you: Cancer referrals

We have produced a video of local cancer specialists from across mid and south Essex that is being shared locally. The message aims to reassure patients about what will happen if they receive an urgent cancer referral.

Please feel free to share this across your social media and include on your practice website/social media pages as necessary.

Urgent dental care centre

If a local resident already has a dentist and requires urgent care, please ask them to contact their own dentist directly or you can refer them to a designated urgent care centre for urgent dental care only as appropriate.

If a local resident does not have a dentist and requires urgent care, please contact NHS 111 who will direct you to the appropriate designated urgent dental care centre.

Updates from wider system in mid and south Essex

Post-treatment cancer patient care from Mid and South Essex Hospital Trust

Post-treatment cancer patients in mid and south Essex are to gain more control over their on-going care and support, thanks to a new remote digital monitoring platform.

Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust (MSEFT) has commissioned an innovative web portal that will allow patients to benefit from “personalised care packages” after they have been treated for breast, colorectal or prostate cancer.

The first phase of the project will be rolled out later this year, so more details will be available over the coming weeks.

Read the press release about post-treatment cancer patient care

Mid and south Essex partnership update

Please click below to read the latest Mid and South Essex Health and Care Partnership brief, which covers the incident response to COVID-19 from across the partnership.

Education and training

Health monitoring technology for care homes

As mentioned in Friday’s bulletin – Mid and South Essex Health and Care Partnership is providing all local care homes with health monitoring technology to capture photos for clinical assessment and record readings from Bluetooth medical instruments (for example temperature, blood oxygen levels, and blood pressure).

This is being rolled out in phases through June/July, starting in Thurrock, followed by other CCG areas.

Further information is available on here

How-to guide: Non face-to-face clinics

If you haven’t seen it already, UCLP has developed a how to guide for non face-to-face clinics which is a compilation of resources, approaches and technologies adopted by our partners to deliver non face-to-face clinics.

Virtual conference on stress resistance and resilience

Free tickets are being offered to all NHS staff for the 3PUK Life 2.0 virtual conference on ‘stress-resistance and resilience through challenging times’ on Sunday 7th June.

To register for a free place, please email your full name, NHS role and photo of NHS ID (if you’re not emailing from an NHS account) to [email protected].

For information

National flu immunisation programme 2020/21

To minimise further impact on the NHS and social care, please find a letter below which sets out actions that you can take now to prepare for this autumn’s flu immunisation programme.