Primary Care E-bulletin (Issue 99) - 2 December

Click here to view web browser version of this briefing.

In this issue:

• Delivering an NHS COVID-19 vaccination programme
• Flu vaccination programme update
• Mid and South Essex GPN COVID-19 Vaccine Forum
• Webinar: New to Partnership Payment Scheme
• GPN Fellowships
• Updated guidance sent to clinically extremely vulnerable patients
• Health and Care Partnership senior appointments
• National webinar dates for your diary

Support with day to day issues

Delivering an NHS COVID-19 vaccination programme

The Government has asked the NHS to be ready to deliver a vaccination programme for England from December 2020 so that those who need it most will be able to access vaccinations as soon as they are available.

Three delivery models

• NHS Trusts – predominantly responsible for vaccinating staff
• Large-scale vaccination sites – EPUT are the lead provider for mid and south Essex
• Community/primary care led – to deliver a programme aimed at specific cohorts, similar to flu

The CCGs are working with identified leads in Primary Care Networks to respond to the current national ask of primary care: collaborative, single sites across PCNs and leading the delivery of vaccinations to care homes and housebound patients.

We advise member practices to link with your PCN lead to further understand the proposed model for delivery in your area. We will have further discussions with the leads on requirements for workforce but we have been exploring:

• How employment checks could be done at scale
• The potential formation of a local bank to supplement workforce capacity
• The potential redeployment of CCG staff
• Working with voluntary organisations to seek input from volunteers
  

IMPORTANT: Register interest in local COVID-19 Vaccination programme

If you or someone you know would like to register interest in supporting the local COVID-19 vaccination programme, please do so via the Essex Primary Care Careers website.

National vaccination programme guidance

Two COVID-19 related documents have been newly released:

• Chapter 14a of “COVID-19: the green book”
• COVID-19: vaccination programme guidance for healthcare practitioners

Further national information for immunisation practitioners and other health professionals including additions to the Green Book can be found here.

Public Health England has produced two videos of Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) Chair Wei Shen explaining the vaccine prioritisation and the rationale for the age-based approach. The videos can be found on the Public Health England Twitter page.You can subscribe to PHE vaccine update here.

Enhanced Service Specification

NHSE/I have now published the Enhanced Service Specification for Primary Care Networks who have received confirmation that they will be local vaccination centres, plus a letter about next steps. A number of PCNs have come forward and we are very grateful for the support and commitment to making this happen in such a short space of time.

PCN Leads have been asked to complete a national Workforce Return by this Friday, 4 December 2020. We ask that you also keep sighted cited on these workforce returns so that we are able to support you with any gaps. You can screenshot the form if easier for you, and then please send to: [email protected]t.

Practices have until 23:59 on Monday 7 December 2020 to opt into the Enhanced Service by notifying their CCG by email. Please send emails confirming sign-up to the same address, [email protected].

Training

There will be training available to support delivery of this programme. Vaccine-specific training will be provided as regulators approve vaccines and it is clear which ones will be used in various parts of the overarching programme. We will roll this out through Time to Learn and other avenues.

In the meantime, please note that yesterday’s national “Next Steps” letter (downloadable from the button below for easy reference) refers to training on page 10. New e-learning elements are also now available. People undertaking the e-learning should print a copy of their certificate as there are some issues with electronic certificates currently being investigated.

National “COVID-19 vaccination programme 2020/21 – next steps” letter

If you have any questions about the Vaccination Programme, please do email them to [email protected] so the Incident Management Team can log and respond to the high number of queries. Some further information is also available in the question-and-answer document you can download from the button below.

COVID vaccination Q&A for Primary Care

Flu vaccination programme update

As you will be aware, from this week the national flu programme is being extended to all people aged between 50 and 64. Further vaccine is available for practices to support this cohort. The CCGs encourage practices to use primarily FluBlock vaccine for this new cohort.

Priority for accessing flu vaccines remains with the at-risk cohorts identified in the earlier part of the vaccination programme. Please continue to focus on the at-risk cohorts prior to any local extension of your vaccination campaigns.

Given the published information on the likely COVID Vaccination Programme prioritisation, we recommend that practices seeking to implement a call-and-recall programme for the 50-64 undertake it in an age-descending order, beginning with 64 year olds and progressing through to 50 year olds.

Flu vaccination for under-5s

Please also bear in mind that, as set out in the Enhanced Service Specification: Childhood seasonal influenza vaccination programme 2020/21, flu vaccination should be offered by GP practices to all children aged 2 and 3 years at 31 August 2020. Thank you for your continued support in protecting the more vulnerable residents of mid and south Essex from influenza.

As a reminder, children aged 4 years old on 31 August 2020 are eligible for flu vaccination via the school age immunisation service. If your practice is contacted by parents or guardians of children in this cohort who are rising to 5 years and not yet in full time school, please signpost the family to the school-age immunisation service commissioned in their local area to arrange vaccination.

Education and training

Mid and South Essex GPN COVID-19 Vaccine Forum

All practice nurses in mid and south Essex are invited to a GPN COVID-19 Vaccine Forum on Thursday 3rd December 2020 at 6pm. (Apologies for the short notice.)

The session offers an open and transparent space where practice nurses can discuss the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine in Primary Care. Jennifer Speller (Associate Director, Primary Care) will be attending the forum to outline how the vaccination programme can be delivered across Primary Care Networks.

To confirm attendance and receive the joining link via Microsoft Teams, please could each delegate send the following information to [email protected].:

Full Name
Job title
Practice
Email address

GPN Fellowships

The Mid and South Essex Training Hub is seeking expressions of interest from practices keen to join this exciting initiative by employing a newly qualified nurse into their workforce. The GPN Fellowship will entail full funding for a two-year programme which will involve only one CPD day a week with the rest of the week working in practice.

The Fellowship is worth £8,000, plus an extra gift of £2,000 to the practices that take on a GPN Fellowship.

The Training Hub have pre-interviewed a bank of newly qualified nurses, who are keen to join Primary Care and embark on a GPN Fellowship. If your Practice would be interested in finding out more about GPN Fellowships, please email [email protected].

Webinar: New to Partnership Payment Scheme

The New to Partnership Payment Scheme (N2PP) is a commitment made in the GP Contract Update 2023/24. It is a nationally managed scheme aimed at supporting registered health care professional to become practice partners through creating a learning fund to develop skills, coupled with a financial payment.

The Training Hub is running a series of webinars with the aim of fully explaining the scheme and how practices can use the funding.

The sessions are aimed at any individuals who are interested in partnership and practices who would like to utilise the scheme. They will take place on:

• Tuesday 8th December, 4.00pm-4.30pm
• Thursday 10th December, 1.00pm-1.30pm
• Wednesday 16th December, 8.30am-9am

To reserve your place, email [email protected] with your preferred date. You will then receive an MS Teams invite.

Mid and South Essex Training Hub

For the latest initiatives from the Mid and South Essex Health and Care Partnership Training Hub, please visit the Training Hub section of our website.

For information

Updated guidance sent to clinically extremely vulnerable patients

From this Wednesday, 2 December, the Government is replacing current national restrictions with a regionally differentiated approach, where different tiers of restrictions apply in different parts of the country. The government has provided specific guidance for clinically extremely vulnerable people at each local tier.

The Government has communicated this updated guidance with all circa 2.3m people on the Shielded Patient List (SPL) via letter, the text of which is also available on the gov.uk website. People for whom the NHS holds an email address also received an emailed copy of the letter on Monday 30 November. We appreciate this letter may generate queries to practices.

Thank you for continuing to support those at highest risk from COVID-19 at this time.

Health and Care Partnership senior appointments

There have been several recent appointments to the new Joint Executive Team to lead the five NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups across mid and south Essex.

Rachel Hearn joins as the Executive Director of Nursing and Quality. The four NHS Alliance Directors for mid and south Essex CCGs are William Guy (Basildon and Brentwood), Dan Doherty (Mid Essex), Tricia D’Orsi (South East Essex) and Mark Tebbs (Thurrock).

The appointment process for the Chief Finance Officer is underway and should be concluded soon and The new role of Integrated Service Director will be progressed once other senior management roles have been developed. There are more details on the Health and Care Partnership website.

National webinar dates for your diary

Wednesday 2 December, 1pm-2pm: Digital Nurse Network Webinar

Thursday 10 December, 10.30am-1.30pm: NHS Volunteer Responder update webinar

NHSE 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.