Please find our GP weekly summary below, which includes a COVID-19 Swabbing Consent Form, a COVID-19 Risk Review, an update on anti-body testing and much more.
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Alternatively, read the summary below:
COVID-19 Throat and Nose Testing (Primary Care) Employee Consent Form
Download our free COVID-19 Swabbing Employee Consent Form at https://www.qcs.co.uk/swab-consent-form/
QCS has produced a Guide to Swabbing and an accompanying Swabbing Consent Form to ensure you and your staff can take swabs confidently knowing that you’re compliant and following procedures correctly.
Coronavirus COVID-19 Risk Review
The government published Public Health England’s review this week of the disparities in the risk and outcomes from COVID-19 in specific groups of people. The review reveals that coronavirus poses a greater risk to those who are:
- Older (over 80)
- Male
- Living in the more deprived areas
- In Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups
There is also a particularly high risk to those:
- Born outside the UK and Ireland
- In a range of caring occupations, including social care, and nursing auxiliaries and assistants
- Who drive passengers in road vehicles for a living
- In care homes
Whilst the results of the review will be further discussed, steps must be taken to recognise and wherever possible mitigate or reduce the impact of COVID-19 in these groups.
Practices are reminded to carry out staff risk assessments for at risk and vulnerable groups. This includes staff returning to work, and existing team members who are potentially more at risk due to their race and ethnicity, age, weight, underlying health conditions, disability, or pregnancy.
The NHS confirmed last week that COVID-19 antibody serology testing is now available for patients if appropriate, and can be offered to NHS patients already having their blood taken and who wish to know whether they have been infected with COVID-19. Appropriate consent should be obtained and documented in the patient record.
The NHS lab result will be available to the practice in the normal way and it is the practice’s responsibility to inform the patient of the result and advise them that a positive test does not indicate immunity to COVID-19.
Testing for primary care staff will be accessible as soon as it is available in the local area, with further details available shortly.
The Government announced last week that GPs and small care homes can register on a new PPE Portal for ordering emergency personal protective equipment (PPE) from a central inventory, to supplement the wholesale supply route that already operates.
The government updated its guidance from 1 June for people who are clinically extremely vulnerable to COVID-19 and have been advised to shield. In summary:
- Clinically extremely vulnerable people should continue to shield until at least the 30 June but from 1 June, they can spend a short period of time outdoors each day with members of their household, still maintaining 2 metre distance from others
- If the shielded person lives alone, they can meet one other person from a different household, maintaining strict social distancing, ideally the same person each time
- Apart from going outside once per day, a shielded person should continue to avoid all non-essential face to face contact, including not going shopping or to pharmacies
- The support for shielded people remains in place and unchanged
This guidance will be reviewed again on 15 June.
Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for General Practice in the Context of Coronavirus (COVID-19)
The latest GP Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) was recently published and includes the latest guidance for practices on:
- Options for face-to-face patient assessment – home visits and face-to-face consultations
- Support for staff – those with symptoms of COVID-19, increased risk from COVID-19, exposure to someone with COVID-19 symptoms in healthcare settings, and funding for staff who are absent due to COVID-19
- Managing patients with symptoms of COVID-19 – NHS 111, CAS, GP interface, case reporting, coding and GP templates, management of patients with symptoms, children with symptoms, access to medication, and hospital admission for patients with symptoms
- Shielded patients at highest clinical risk of severe illness from COVID-19 – key actions for practices, medicines supply, and social and community support
- Wider group of patients at risk of severe illness from COVID-19 – social distancing measures, and home visits
- Considerations for practices regarding COVID-19 – patient registration and access, translation and interpretation services, patients at risk of deterioration from other conditions, speciality referral pathways, medicines and prescribing, employment guidance, self-certificate and fit notes (MED3), verification of death and death certification, support for patients and the public, mental health, dementia, learning disability and autism, care homes, and advance care planning
Principles of Safe Video Consulting in General Practice During COVID-19
New guidance, supported by the RCGP, has been published which is aimed at NHS general practice staff who are consulting via video with patients at home. The guidance covers:
- General information – such as information governance, communication, medico-legal and consent
- Remote examination – including intimate examinations, patient’s identity, safety netting, documentation, and a guide to carrying out remote video consultations
COVID-19 Related Payments for Dispensing Doctors
Processes are now in place to ensure that Dispensing Doctors receive payments for the following in three elements:
- Mandatory element of the Pandemic Delivery Service
- This will be paid automatically
- The period 9 April – 31 May will be paid along with June 2020 dispensing payments
- Thereafter payment will be made monthly for as long as the service is commissioned
- Actual delivery of medicines
- A claim form must be submitted
- Claims for the period 9 April – 31 May can be submitted along with the FP34D at the end of June 2020
- Claims should be made at the end of the month for which they relate, and only for eligible patients i.e. clinically extremely vulnerable
- £300 towards the cost of screens
- This will be paid automatically as a one-off payment
- The payment will be along with June 2020 dispensing payments
Primary Care Webinar
The next biweekly Primary Care webinar will take place