Coventry & Warwickshire COVID-19 Portal

 

Primary Care Coronavirus briefing – Coventry and Warwickshire – 8 April 2020 

 

**Please find below the latest daily primary care coronavirus briefing.**

 

Information provided by NHS Coventry and Rugby CCG, NHS South Warwickshire CCG and NHS Warwickshire North CCG in line with Public Health England guidance.

 

This information may change rapidly as the situation develops. For the latest information for primary care, visit: https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/primary-care

1. Easter - updated

As one NHS team, primary care colleagues are being asked to work together and boost the help to our colleagues in hospitals and other care settings as we all prepare for the surge in cases we expect to start to see locally from this weekend, with increasing care needs for our population and impact on staff.

This has been realised in the exceptional steps taken this Easter with changes to the GP contract regulations meaning that Friday 10 and Monday 13 April 2020 are defined as core hours. This means that they are normal working days for general practice as they are for the whole NHS so practices should be open from 8.00am – 6.30pm.  

Out of Hours provision will be provided as per a normal weekend from 6.30pm Friday to Monday 8.00am and they are re-purposing their usual bank holiday capacity into maximising their clinical triage home visiting services to manage the weekend surge.  

It can’t be denied that right across the NHS a lot is being asked of you and your colleagues and this will continue as Covid and its effect on the population gathers pace. There is incredible pressure on the health system, but in a short space of time a huge amount of work has been done to ensure we are prepared to face this massive challenge. For what has already been completed and for the undertaking that is yet to come, we are grateful to you all.

Dr Sarah Raistrick, Dr David Spraggett, Dr Imogen Staveley

Today’s topics – use the links to jump to each section

 

**Latest local picture**

**Local updates** 

**Latest updates for each PLACE (Coventry and Rugby, South Warwickshire, Warwickshire North)**

 

Latest national picture

Communications from NHS England

Actions for Primary Care

 

Today’s attachments

• Oxford University Hospitals - Referrals during Covid 19 situation.docx (item 2)

 

LATEST LOCAL PICTURE

 

Please remember: we are issuing daily (Monday to Friday) communications via: warnoccg.covid19primarycarecommunications@nhs.net. We would also ask that if you have questions or concerns relating to the current situation around coronavirus and COVID-19 you use the same address: warnoccg.covid19primarycarecommunications@nhs.net. Please keep us updated with any issues that you may be having so we can try to address them.

 

Local picture (as of 7 April)

There are 677 cases now confirmed in Coventry and Warwickshire 

306 of these are currently admitted (+3 / +1.0% from yesterday)

668 beds still available (+18 / +2.8% from yesterday)

32 ITU beds still available (+0 / +0.0% from yesterday)

102 hospital deaths with Covid reported (+22 from yesterday).

LATEST LOCAL UPDATE

2. Oxford University Hospitals Outpatient Appointments, Surgery & Referrals

As part of Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) planning to postpone non-urgent work due to Covid-19 and keeping staff and patients as safe as possible, we have taken the decision to put on hold referral of any new routine referrals to the Trust. The OUH understand primary care is under pressure too so we appreciate your support with this decision. Full details of how this affects outpatient appointment, surgery and referrals is attached. (Attachment: Oxford University Hospitals - Referrals during Covid 19 situation.docx).

3. COVID-19: ethical issues: Guidance for doctors on ethical issues likely to arise when providing care and treatment during the COVID-19 outbreak

This guidance from the BMA is produced to support the easy read FAQs on the same topic. It explores in more detail the ethical issues likely to be encountered during the COVID-19 outbreak and what good decision making requires.

LATEST UPDATES FOR EACH PLACE

UPDATES FOR Coventry and Rugby and Warwickshire North – 8 April 2020 

No updates this issue.

UPDATES FOR South Warwickshire – 8 April 2020 

No updates this issue.

LATEST NATIONAL PICTURE 

 

• As of 9am on 7 April 2020, 266,694 people have been tested in the UK and 55,242 were confirmed as positive. As of 5pm on 6 April 2020, of those hospitalised in the UK, 6,159 have died. (Please note: the figures for test results and for deaths are compiled from different sources. This is why the figures for deaths are reported from an earlier point in time than the figures for test results.)  

• The most up to date government advice on coronavirus is available online.

• The Foreign Secretary's statement on coronavirus (COVID-19) delivered via a press conference on 7 April 2020, detailing the government’s response to coronavirus. The briefing transcript is available to view online.

• The press conference slides and datasets used by Sir Patrick Vallance, Chief Scientific Adviser in the daily coronavirus press conference on 7 April 2020 can be accessed online.

COMMUNICATIONS FROM NHS ENGLAND

4. NHS England Primary Care Bulletin – new edition – 7 April

COVID-19: latest guidance for general practice is issued in the NHS England Primary Care Bulletin (7 April) and has a large amount of information on bank holiday preparations and access to primary care services (the main change being Friday 10 April (Good Friday) and Monday 13 April (Easter Monday) are defined as core hours). Also included are making use of the volunteer responders service and secure messaging available in the NHS App. This regular COVID-19 Primary Care Bulletin is from Dr Nikki Kanani and Gabi Darby and you are encouraged to sign up here: https://www.england.nhs.uk/email-bulletins/general-practice-bulletin/

5. Primary Care Webinar

The next GP Preparedness webinar for primary care will be on Thursday 9 April from 5-6pm. Join via the Microsoft teams link.

6. PPE guidance

As part of the PPE guidance which went out recently, there were helpful communications materials which may not have been picked up. These include an FAQ document and a poster on the how to use PPE correctly. The guidance and other supporting documents can be found here.

7. Media enquiries 

Our communications team is here to support you if needed. If you are approached by the media, please forward on to your local communications team: agem.communications@nhs.net. Outside of working hours the communications team can be reached via 01522 537887.  

ACTIONS FOR PRIMARY CARE

Review the changes relating to changes to Bank Holiday opening on Good Friday and Easter Monday.

Note the date for the next primary care webinar: Thursday 9 April at 5pm – 6pm.

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Please note: This is the designated inbox for all Primary Care enquiries for practices across Coventry and Warwickshire, set up to help support practices and provide a single point of contact to send and receive information about the rapidly developing COVID-19 situation. Please be aware that guidance is changing regularly and we are endeavouring to keep you as up to date as possible.

Please note: the CCG has made the decision to use every email distribution list at its disposal in order to ensure as many people as possible receive these important updates. If you no longer wish to receive these updates, please reply to this email and we will remove you from the distribution list.

The inbox is monitored regularly, and we will respond to you as soon as we can. 

In the meantime, the latest guidance for primary care can be found here: https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/primary-care/