Important information for GP practices across Kent and Medway
Tuesday, 12 October 2021
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Vaccinations and immunisation
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Revised form for requesting additional staff support
Please can colleagues use this revised form when requesting additional support from Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust's staff vaccination bank.
We understand practices may be using different vaccines and we need to make sure any colleagues who are supporting you with your vaccination clinics are suitably trained and compliant.
Please destroy any previous forms to avoid errors.
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Clinical advice and support
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Cervical screening
The Office of Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), part of DHSC, is planning a national cervical screening campaign in February-March 2022 to encourage all those eligible to attend screening. The ‘Screening Saves Lives’ campaign will raise awareness of the risks of cervical cancer and highlight the preventative benefits of screening. It will encourage individuals to respond to their screening invitation letters, and if they have not respond to previous invites to book an appointment at their GP practice. The cervical screening campaign is an existing successful campaign – in 2019 there were 100,000 additional screening samples taken at the time that the marketing activity ran.
The campaign strategy has not been confirmed, but media activity is likely to include TV advertising, Video on Demand, social media, media partnerships, together with national and regional PR activity. The Office of Health Improvement and Disparities’ partners will play an integral role in supporting the campaign by amplifying campaign messages through their channels.
As providers of NHS Cervical Screening Programme Services we are making you aware of the campaign so you can plan your resources accordingly to ensure you have sufficient capacity to deal with any increase in activity the campaign may generate.
For any further information, please email the Kent and Medway Screening and Immunisation Team via phst@nhs.net.
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Becton Dickinson blood specimen collection - supply disruption update
The Department for Health and Social Care and the NHS have issued an alert in relation to the supply disruption to Becton Dickinson’s blood specimen collection portfolio, further to the letter sent on 16 September.
Due to the mitigations in place and the efforts of colleagues across the NHS the supply situation has stabilised but supplies are not yet back at normal levels. To reflect the current position, and to avoid putting further pressure on stock, as the situation continues to recover, changes to the guidance issued on 16 September have been made.
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Nursing/midwifery clinical practice educator survey
Health Education England (HEE) recognises nursing and midwifery shortages are a key challenge facing the NHS. The support offered to learners and qualified nurses and midwifes via clinical practice educators is key in ensuring their retention and preparing the nursing and midwifery workforce of the country across health and social care.
If you identify as a nursing associate, nurse or midwife that supports the education of either the pre-registration or post-registration nursing and midwifery workforce then we would like to invite you to participate in a survey, with the potential to also join interview/focus groups, to contribute to a better understanding of your training needs and experience as a clinical educator across health and social care.
Please access the survey here. The survey takes around 15 minutes to complete and will be closing on Monday, 8 November.
To encourage a wide range of responses please forward this email onto any other nursing/midwifery clinical educators within your organisation.
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Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) seminar
On Thursday, 21 October there will an free online presentation hosted by FASD Awareness with guest speaker, Dr. Adesoji Abiona, who will give an overview of 'FASD: A Paediatrician's Perspective', followed by a question and answer session where he will answer guests pre-submitted questions.
This event would be particularly beneficial to parents and carers of people living with FASD, along with clinicians. To book a free place please register via Eventbrite here.
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Workforce planning updates
The 2021/22 Network contract DES specifies that all Primary Care Networks (PCNs) were required to complete workforce planning returns providing details of their updated recruitment plans for 2021/22 by Wednesday, 31 August. A huge thank you to all our colleagues across Kent and Medway who returned the completed template.
A further requirement of this submission is to provide indicative intentions through to 2023/24 by Sunday, 31 October for the roles included in the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS).
These submissions contribute to workforce planning at local, regional and national level and it is important that all PCNs complete the submission so that we can provide the appropriate support and guidance. The information also helps shape how investment, training and resource is directed across primary care.
If the indicative intentions for recruitment for your PCN was provided in the submission made by Wednesday, 31 August you do not need to do anything.
If the recruitment intentions of the PCN have changed or your PCN did not indicate their intentions through to 2023/24 you are required to submit the template available on the NHS website by Sunday, 31 October to kmccg.primarycare@nhs.net. Supporting guidance has been shared on FutureNHS.
If you have any questions please email: england.primarycareworkforce@nhs.net. |
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GP Community Pharmacy Consultation Service
It’s great to see community pharmacies and general practices working together to implement the GP Community Pharmacy Consultation Service (CPCS). It is something that practices can do to help prepare for winter. The referral pathway empowers practice teams to refer patients presenting with minor illnesses for convenient, same-day consultations.
The 29 practices across Kent and Medway which are live with CPCS have referred 891 patients into the service.
The National Pharmacy Association has produced a myth busting guide to help improve understanding of the service and benefits to practices and patients.
The Impact and Investment Fund (IIF) requirements which came into place at the beginning of this month, also includes the requirement for PCNs to develop plans for how they will increase appropriate referrals through to community pharmacies via the GP CPCS.
To find out how to implement GP CPCS within your PCN or practice, please email the primary care transformation, development and improvement team: kmccg.pctransformation@nhs.net.
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Kent Local Pharmaceutical Committee (LPC) wins national award
Kent LPC, which represents and supports 326 community pharmacies across Kent and Medway, was voted the best local representative body for community pharmacies in the UK and won the Best Supporting LPC award at the Independent Pharmacy Awards 2021.
Our local LPC, led by Shilpa Shah, impressed the judges for its work in supporting community pharmacies during the pandemic and helping them to continue to provide essential services in the community during lockdowns. On receiving the award Shilpa said: “It was lovely to see an LPC being recognised for all the support we provide to Community Pharmacy contractors and the wider Kent and Medway health and care system.”
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Please share this update with colleagues who are welcome to subscribe to the mailing list.
Previous issues of the GP Practice Update are available online
If you have any feedback or ideas to make the updates more useful to you please email.
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Useful links
Produced by the communications team, NHS Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group
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