Primary Care E-bulletin (Issue 43) - 5 June 2020

In this issue:

• Laptops
• Pando App: demo and Q&A
• Use of primary care data to support system planning
• New diabetes advice helpline
• National PPE portal
• Primary care network update
• Communications resources

Support with day-to-day issues

Laptops

IT has a limited stock of laptops remaining, please confirm if you have members of staff in the following groups still requiring a laptop:

• GP
• Clinician
• Prescribing.

If further laptops are required, please email IT:  [email protected]

Pando app demo and Q&A

When: 11 June, 13:00 pm, MS Teams Live Broadcast and Q&A

To support primary care colleagues, Mid and South Essex University Hospitals Group has introduced a new, instant secure messaging app called Pando for use on devices such as mobile phones and tablets which is free to download and approved. We circulated information about Pando in one of our previous briefings back in April.

One feature of Pando is ‘Ask Advice’ which gives GPs the opportunity to reach out to a team of secondary care professionals under high priority specialities for advice on how to proceed with patients care.

To help you familiarise yourself with the app and how it works, a presentation, demo and live Q&A will take place. The event is aimed at Practice Managers, but other primary care colleagues are welcome to join. If you are unable to attend, there will be a recording of the session which we can share.

If you would like to join the meeting, please follow this link on the date/time specified above

Use of primary care data to support system planning

Mid and South Essex CCGs are keen to work with GP practices to make better use of data to help ensure high risk patients get access to the right care and ensure the contribution of primary care within our system is more visible. This will support GP practices, commissioners and the wider system to manage future challenges arising from COVID-19.

Read more about the use of primary care data to support system planning.

For information

New diabetes advice helpline

NHS England and NHS Improvement have launched a new Diabetes Advice helpline to support people living with insulin-treated diabetes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The helpline offers clinical advice for people who cannot access their usual care teams due to local service disruption. Please find attached a one-page FAQ for local healthcare professionals along with a promotional text that local GP practices and diabetes specialist teams can share with potential helpline users; including a template letter/email, text and twitter content.

National PPE portal

This week practices should’ve received an email to register with the national PPE portal. Once invited, users will be able to place an order for PPE once a week. More information, including how to register can be found on the website.

Primary Care Network update

All 28 networks across mid and south Essex have confirmed their commitment to drive forward with local plans that will see increased investment to expand the local workforce and deliver more coordinated health and care services.

The average networks are now eligible to receive funding for around seven Full Time Equivalent (FTE) staff, through an average reimbursement pot of £344,000 in 2020/21. This rises to 20 FTE staff and an average reimbursement pot of £1.13 million in 2023/24.

Mid and south Essex CCGs have been holding a virtual roadshow this week to support all PCN Clinical Directors on workforce planning. Further sessions to support Clinical Directors are also planned.

Communications resources

The CCGs will be promoting some new useful resources about how the public can access NHS services online to free up capacity in GP practices.

These resources may be useful for your practice include newsletter and website copies, social media posts, they can be downloaded here.

A range of new assets that can be used to promote and explain the NHS Test and Trace Service are also available from the Campaign Resource Centre.