Coventry & Warwickshire COVID-19 Portal

 

Primary Care Coronavirus briefing – Coventry and Warwickshire – 9 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

We have now received clarification about the requirements and reimbursement rates for practices that are open over Easter. 

Practices opening on Good Friday and Easter Monday are able to seek reimbursement for additional staffing costs incurred on these days, in line with the respective rates as set out below. That includes:

• Sessional GPs: up to a maximum of £250 a session or £500 per day;

• Overtime for salaried GPs in line with the individual’s contractual arrangements;

• Additional capacity from GP Partners to recognise up to two additional sessions on each of Good Friday and Easter Monday at a rate of £289 per session plus applicable employer National Insurance and pension costs;

• Overtime for non-GP practice staff in line with the individual’s contractual arrangements.

 

Our expectation is that practices should be providing a doctor led service for their routine contractual hours, this will include patients being able to contact the surgery for queries, completing telephone triage, non-face to face consultations and face to face appointments for cold patients after triage, if necessary. The minimum staffing expected within the practice is one GP, plus any administration support required for reception and telephone triage. If practices are intending to provide over and above this, they are asked to contact the CCG with their proposed staffing levels for this to be formally agreed. Please contact your local Head of Primary care (Roma Holland / Nicola Temperley-Smith or Sarah Johnson)  

 

CCGs will need to provide NHSEI evidence of the number of practices open over the two bank holidays and the staffing levels deployed, this information will be collected from practices w/c 13th April if not previously provided..  

 

Those practices that also dispense should ensure that the dispensing side is open the usual core hours as per the practice requirement. 

 

Local Hot Hubs remain open over the Easter period for hot cases.

 

Attachment: Letter re Easter Opening TT 09 04 2020.pdf

 

2. PPE 

 

Confirmation around PPE. Practices must ensure that they continue to order the PPE they require from their usual suppliers. We appreciate that most suppliers have depleted stock, but some are seeing this change and do have stock coming through.

 

Practices need to order PPE as per the latest guidance. This can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-infection-prevention-and-control/covid-19-personal-protective-equipment-ppe 

For immediate short-term issues around PPE, the National Supply Disruption Response (NSDR) are able to issue ‘pre-packed kits’ with a minimum of (100 Type IIR face masks; 100 aprons and 100 pairs of gloves) within 72 hours. Practices who raise requests for kits through NSDR must to be able to make arrangements to receive emergency delivery of these ‘pre-packed kits’ outside of business hours. 

The NSDR 24/7 telephone helpline is 0800 915 9964 or supplydisruptionservice@nhsbsa.nhs.uk. Practices will need to ensure that they have the relevant information to hand.

The CCG does not hold a stock of PPE. If practices are having difficulty in obtaining PPE and have exhausted all of the above options, then please notify the CCG and we will help where we can.  

 

If you have any further concerns about PPE, please contact us on the COVID-19 email.

 

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

• Letter re Easter Opening TT 09 04 2020.pdf (item 1)

• Coventry and Warwickshire COVID Primary Care Patient Monitoring.docx (item 3)

• Coventry ^0 Warwickshire Pharmacies Opening Hours - April 2020 vs1.xlsx (item 4)

• EPAU Referral Pathway-COVID.docx, Revised 2ww information in light of COVID.docx (item 6)

 

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 734 cases now confirmed in Coventry and Warwickshire 

306 of these are currently admitted (+0 / +0.0% from yesterday)

661 beds still available (-7 / -1.0% from yesterday)

21 ITU beds still available (-11 / -34.4% from yesterday)

110 reported deaths in a hospital setting (+8 / +7.8% from yesterday)

LATEST LOCAL UPDATE

3. Coventry and Warwickshire COVID-19 Patient Telephone Monitoring Standard Operating Procedure 

The attached operating procedure has been developed based on the guidance set out in the GP preparedness letter issued on the 27th March 2020 and Guidance and standard operating procedures, General practice in the context of coronavirus (COVID-19) guidance and details how practices in Coventry and Warwickshire should deliver telephone monitoring to their patients and details the interface between practices and NHS 111. Assessment Service and Covid patient monitoring requirements. (Attachment: Coventry and Warwickshire COVID Primary Care Patient Monitoring.docx)

4. Coventry and Warwickshire Pharmacies Opening hours 

Community Pharmacy phone numbers & opening hours – normal and Easter and any known change due to Covid. (Attachment: Coventry ^0 Warwickshire Pharmacies Opening Hours - April 2020 vs1.xlsx). Please note the Easter hours are correct as at time of sending

 

5. GP Teaching Palliative Care and COVID19 teaching session

 

A Zoom presentation of the session is available to view here

 

6. Oxford University Hospitals – referral updates

 

Referral to Early Pregnancy Assessment Unit

Revised 2ww information in light of COVID- 19

 

Both are attached (Attachment: EPAU Referral Pathway-COVID.docx, Revised 2ww information in light of COVID.docx)

 

LATEST UPDATES FOR EACH PLACE

UPDATES FOR Coventry and Rugby and Warwickshire North – 9 April 2020 

No updates this issue.

UPDATES FOR South Warwickshire – 9 April 2020 

No updates this issue.

UPDATES FOR Warwickshire North – 9 April 2020 

7. Cancellation of Warwickshire North PLT Events

The decision has been taken yesterday to stand down all future Warwickshire North PLT sessions until further notice at such time that we can re-start the sessions again. To clarify the out of hours cover by Care UK has also been cancelled - practice Managers please ensure that your surgery phone lines do not have a message directing patients to care UK.

We are aware that education is important around Covid-19 during this time and also non-Covid-19 pathology. All relevant guidance and webinars will be disseminated through the daily Primary Care Coronavirus briefing from the generic address-warnoccg.covid19primarycarecommunications@nhs.net.

LATEST NATIONAL PICTURE 

 

• As of 9am on 8 April 2020, 282,074 people have been tested in the UK and 60,733 were confirmed as positive. As of 5pm on 7 April 2020, of those hospitalised in the UK, 7,097 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 Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak statement on coronavirus (COVID-19) delivered via a press conference on 8 April 2020, detailing the government’s response to coronavirus and centred on the support for the charity sector in response to coronavirus. The briefing transcript is available to view online.

• The press conference slides and datasets used by Professor Angela McLean, Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser in the daily coronavirus press conference on 8 April 2020 can be accessed online.

COMMUNICATIONS FROM NHS ENGLAND

8. NHS England Primary Care Bulletin – new edition – 8 April

COVID-19: latest guidance for general practice is issued in the NHS England Primary Care Bulletin (8 April) and contains details on Good Friday and Easter Monday reimbursement rates, maintaining standards and quality of care in pressurised circumstances and an update on identifying highest risk patients. 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/

 

9. Primary Care Webinar

 

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

 

10. New mental health hotline to benefit Midlands staff tackling Covid-19

 

NHS workers in the Midlands can now benefit from a new mental health hotline as they continue their vital work in helping people deal with the coronavirus. NHS England and NHS Improvement has launched the new service as part of a package of measures to support NHS staff in the Midlands. Full details here.

 

11. How primary care professionals can access NHS volunteer responders

 

NHS Volunteer Responders have been mobilised to help support vulnerable individuals who are self-isolating, particularly those most at risk from COVID-19 and those considered vulnerable by health practitioners and local authorities. The volunteer initiative is being delivered by NHS England and NHS Improvement in partnership with Royal Voluntary Service and enabled by the GoodSam Responders app. An explanation of the scheme and how to access it can be found here.

 

12. Whatsapp scam

 

We are aware of a voice message circulating about the ambulance response to coronavirus, as well as restrictions on movement and predicted case numbers, which claims to have come from PHE. This is fake news, and we would urge people to ignore the message and not share it further.

 

13. 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.  

 

14. Daily briefing – next issue

 

Issue 17 will be sent out on Tuesday 14 April.

 

ACTIONS FOR PRIMARY CARE

Review the changes to Bank Holiday opening on Good Friday and Easter Monday including the reimbursement rates.

Note the date for the next primary care webinar, tonight (9 April) from 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/