Coventry & Warwickshire COVID-19 Portal

**Please find below the latest 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

In today's briefing we include the latest news stories falling into the following categories:

• Latest Local Picture

• Local Updates

• Latest National Picture

• Communications from NHS England

• Actions For Primary Care

Please click on the relevant section to view specific information.  

Please remember: we are issuing the briefing twice a week (Tuesday and Thursday) 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.

Coventry and Warwickshire COVID position up to 08.06.2020

• 2,329 cases now confirmed in Coventry and Warwickshire (+44 / +1.9% from Thursday)

• 62 of these are currently admitted (-6 / -8.8% from Thursday)

• 592 beds still available (+13 / +2.2% from Thursday)

• 1 ITU beds occupied by Covid patients (-3 / -75.0% from Thursday)

• 485 reported deaths in a hospital setting (+4 / +0.8% from Thursday)

 Care Home current position as at 08.06.2020 

• 251 Covid related deaths in care homes (+1 / +0.4% from Thursday, note some of these deaths may have occurred outside of the home and so may be counted in the figure above)

• 610 Care home deaths in total (+6 / +1.0% from Thursday)

• 768 confirmed cases (+18 / +2.4% from Thursday) 

o Confirmed care home cases broken down by CCG:

o Coventry & Rugby: 410

o South Warwickshire: 239

o Warwickshire North: 119

Download the weekly totals and predictions.

Local Updates

A letter has been issued to notify you of temporary changes to the need for patient consent (using the powers granted by the National Health Service (Amendments Relating to the Provision of Primary Care Services During a Pandemic etc.) Regulations 2020 during the COVID-19 response) to maximise use of the electronic repeat dispensing (eRD) system. The full text of the letter is available to download from the Updates and Guidance pages of the NHS website.

2. NHS Support for patients who are shielding

Since the start of the pandemic, you and your teams have devoted a great deal of time and effort identifying and advising patients who are clinically extremely vulnerable to COVID19, ensuring they are put on the Shielded Patient List (SPL), and most importantly of all, changing how the NHS provides care for this group of over 2 million people who were strongly advised to stay at home. We are hugely appreciative of your invaluable work in continuing to support these patients and helping to keep them safe and well. There has been a recent update to this in light of recent new guidance. Please review the new guidance.

3. Capturing clinical innovations - beneficial change

A letter from Steve Powis and Hugh Mcaughey has been shared which contains a survey link on innovation. The invitation is for you and your clinical teams to contribute to this survey by 30/6/2020. They want to ensure beneficial changes to care are captured and embedded in our services so that future patients benefit over the next 12 months and beyond. The letter is available to download.

4. Coventry and Warwickshire Primary Care Cancer Newsletter 

The latest edition of the Coventry and Warwickshire Primary Care Cancer newsletter is now available to download and you will see that it is separated into Covid and Non-Covid updates. The aim of this newsletter is to keep you informed about the latest news, developments and future to help primary care in the delivery of excellence in cancer care across Coventry and Warwickshire.

5. West Midlands Cervical Screening Collections Update

Following on from the update in May, the Royal Wolverhampton Trust laboratory will recommence collection samples from GP practices daily Monday to Friday with immediate effect across the West Midlands. Please download a copy of the latest correspondence.

UPDATES FOR Coventry and Rugby – 9 June 2020

6. Lunchtime webinar: Treatment and support for non-dependent and dependent drinkers in Coventry on 3 July 2020 from 1pm to 1.30pm

The session will aid front line staff supporting adults in Coventry. It will be in the form of a 30 minute lunchtime webinar briefing to outline treatment options and harm reduction advice covering the spectrum of alcohol misuse. The webinar will be presented by Karen Wagstaff from HLS Coventry and Steve Bliss from CGL Coventry and will be followed by a Q&A session. The briefing will include an overview of the spectrum of alcohol use and assessing the level of alcohol use. Access is via Microsoft Teams.

UPDATES FOR South Warwickshire – 9 June 2020 

7. Urgent / Emergency Ophthalmology Services

In the last update, we provided information on this service. We now understand that UHCW has successfully installed a dedicated phone line to their telephone triage team.

This is not to be in the public domain (please do not share with patients) and will be for clinician to clinician handover – it is intended for GPs/ Optoms and SWFT/GEH to improve call answering time. This should improve access by not having patients and clinicians trying to get through on the same line.

The line will be accessible from Wednesday 10 June and will be manned Monday to Friday 9am - 7pm and Saturday morning 9am -1pm. The dedicated number is:  

024 7696 6333

 

The out of hours number remains the same: 07823 535863

In the event that you cannot get in touch with the clinician using the mobile number out of hours, please contact the on-call clinician via switchboard.

8. SWFT Dermatology Department update

When sending in a referral to the Dermatology department at Warwick and Stratford hospital, please can you ensure Photos of the complaint are included and sent in with the referral. It is paramount to the patients treatment at this time, due to the increase in virtual consultations.

If you are not able to do this during the appointment, patients can send in their own photos prior to the appointment to: dermatologyphotos@swft.nhs.uk please can patients name their pictures. All patients referred will be called prior to the appointment to ask for this information also. Many thanks ERS/Dermatology Department

UPDATES FOR Warwickshire North – 9 June 2020

No updates this issue.

• 287,399 people have tested positive.

• As of 5pm on 7 June, of those tested positive for coronavirus in the UK, across all settings, 40,597 have died.

• The latest advice is here.

• Slides, datasets and transcripts to accompany coronavirus press conference on 8 June,led by Matt Hancock.

• Coronavirus (COVID-19): getting tested.

• Number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases and risk in the UK.

• Regional breakdown of R number now published.

• Latest local figures published by GOV.uk and PHE are as of Monday 8 June 2020 at 4:23pm, there are a total of 16,468 cases in the West Midlands.

Communications from NHS England

COVID-19: latest guidance for general practice is issued in the NHS England Primary Care Bulletin (9 June) and in this edition has details of GP Standard Operating Procedure updated: Staff risk assessments, guidance for general practice ordering personal protective equipment, collecting your examples of innovation, clinical negligence indemnity arrangements during the COVID-19 pandemic and a cervical screening update . This regular COVID-19 Primary Care Bulletin is from Dr Nikki Kanani and Ed Waller and you are encouraged to sign up here: https://www.england.nhs.uk/email-bulletins/general-practice-bulletin/. 

10. NHS England Primary Care Bulletin – 5 June

COVID-19: latest guidance for general practice is issued in the NHS England Primary Care Bulletin (5 June) and in this edition has details of COVID-19 National Testing: Flowing results to GP records, the rapid deployment of online and video Consultations across London and NHS England and NHS Confederation announcment of the creation of a new centre to investigate the impact of race and ethnicity on people’s health. 

11. Primary Care Improvement Community Newsletter

Download the latest version of the newsletter which includes reflections from a practice manager – three months on from COVID-19 and a report from Sovereign Health on their COVID-19 Transformation Journey. Download the newsletter.

12. Learning Disabilities Mortality Review (LeDeR) programme newsletter

The May 2020 bulletin is available to download. Topics in this programme include: NHS England continuing to support LeDeR at the University of Bristol, the latest COVID 19 data and the effect of COVID 19 on informal carers of people with learning disabilities.

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.   

Please review the changes to the use of the electronic repeat dispensing system.