Download this week’s GP Weekly Update here which features the following:
- How COVID-19 Vaccinations are Recorded
- COVID-19 Vaccination in People with Learning Disabilities
- The COVID-19 Shielded Patient List
- Medicines and Appliances Home Delivery Service
- Post COVID-19 Vaccine Waiting Room Animation
- CQC Consultation on Changes for Flexible Regulation
- Applying for the 2019/20 Pension Annual Allowance Charge Compensation Policy
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How COVID-19 Vaccinations are Recorded
There have been many discussions and queries about this so NHS Digital have published a guide about how the vaccinations are recorded, how long it takes, common errors or difficulties and how to get help.
One thing to note is that there are different processes for different clinical systems about how Practices receive the vaccination record. However, once the vaccination record has been added to the patient’s medical records, within 48 hours of the initial vaccine data entry, it will appear in the vaccinations section of the Summary Care Record.
Another issue has been incorrect information on the vaccine record, for example the wrong batch code or SNOMED code. This can be corrected in Pinnacle, or you can override incorrect information in your GP clinical system directly.
COVID-19 Vaccination in People with Learning Disabilities
A letter has just been published by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) which gives advice on COVID-19 vaccination in people with learning disabilities. The JCVI has advised that:
- All individuals with Down’s Syndrome should be offered vaccination in priority group 4
- Those with severe and profound learning disabilities, and those with learning disabilities residing in residential care, should be offered the vaccine in group 6
- Those with a wide range of neurological and respiratory conditions have also been advised to be vaccinated in priority group 6
- All of those on the GP Learning Disability Register plus those with codes for other related conditions, including cerebral palsy, are to be invited for vaccination in priority group 6 (unless already in priority group 4, such as those with Down’s Syndrome)
It’s recognised that some severely affected individuals would not be coded at all on GP systems, so there will be a planned approach to work with local authorities to identify those in residential and nursing care, and those who required support, for example as part of assisted living in the community, and those in shared accommodation with multiple occupancy, to ensure this population could be offered vaccination.
In addition to this group, people with Severe Mental Illness (SMI) are also included in group 6 of the JCVI’s prioritisation list for the COVID-19 vaccination.
The COVID-19 Shielded Patient List
In a letter sent to GPs last week, shielding advice has been extended until 31 March and last week the Government wrote to the existing cohort of 2.3m individuals on the Shielded Patient List to inform them of this extension. The new cohorts identified through the QCOVID model have already been advised to shield until the same date.
Medicines and Appliances Home Delivery Service
The Community Pharmacy Home Delivery Service and the Dispensing Doctor Home Delivery Service has been commissioned from community pharmacies and dispensing doctors until 31 March 2021.
It’s available for all clinically extremely vulnerable patients on the Shielded Patient List living in England where family and friends cannot collect prescriptions or a volunteer can’t be organised.
Post-Vaccine Waiting Room Animation
Practices are encouraged to show this animation, available on the FutureNHS website, which reinforces the importance of following COVID-19 guidelines after people have been vaccinated.
CQC Consultation on Changes for Flexible Regulation
The CQC are making changes so that they can regulate in a more flexible and responsive way and they want you to tell them what you think.
During the pandemic, the CQC recognised there was less of a need for ‘physical’ site inspections, unless a targeted inspection was needed to focus on areas of highest concern. With the introduction last year of the Emergency Support Framework (ESF) and Transitional Regulatory Approach (TRA) the CQC is currently testing ways of assessing home care providers and GP practices without visiting the premises.
As a result, the CQC is proposing some changes and in their consultation document they explain that they want to move away from using comprehensive, on-site inspection as the main way of updating ratings and, for GP Practices, they want to stop providing ratings for individual population groups and introduce simplified ratings for GP practices at two levels:
- Level 1: A rating for each key question for the location/service
- Level 2: An overall rating for the service
For example:
You can respond using their online form and the consultation closes at 5.00pm on Tuesday 23 March 2021.
Applying for the 2019/20 Pension Annual Allowance Charge Compensation Policy
GPs retiring by 31 March 2021, who believe they are eligible to apply for the 2019/20 Pensions Annual Allowance Charge Compensation Policy, can submit their application form via PCSE until Sunday 21 March 2021. Further details can be found here and on the PCSE website.
Application windows for other GPs will open after the mandatory scheme pays election deadline for 2019/20 closes on 31 July 2021. To qualify for the Policy the GP must first submit a scheme pays election (SPE2) form for 2019/20 to NHSBSA.