PHE issued guidelines today on best practice for handling potential cases of the Coronavirus. Experts said, it is possible that Wuhan novel Coronavirus (WN-CoV) may cause mild to moderate illness, in addition to pneumonia or severe acute respiratory infection, so patients could potentially present to primary care. Fever, cough or chest tightness, and dyspnoea are the main symptoms reported by affected patients. PHE's primary care guidance says WN-CoV may cause mild to moderate illness as well as pneumonia or severe acute respiratory infection. Further info can be found here:-
If the infection does present in the UK it is most likely to occur in travellers who have recently returned from Wuhan and advises clinicians to take an accurate travel history.
NHS Digital has emailed practices about an error with the Seasonal Flu 2019/20 extraction where the codes for patients in under 65 at-risk groups with TIA were inadvertently removed from the business rules. This means that these patients are not being included in the payment extraction despite vaccines having been given and coded appropriately. It is anticipated that the number of missed payments will be low, as it is likely that most people will have other risk factors that are captured by the current business rules. There will be a single collection in April 2020 for payment in 2020/21.
GPC England met yesterday where the majority of the day was spent discussing the GP contract negotiation proposals, including a package of proposed changes to the current contract. GPC England voted not to accept the proposed contract agreement with NHS England and NHS Improvement, condemned the draft Primary Care Networks service specifications and called for a Special Conference of English LMCs to allow GP to debate and consider the outcome of contract negotiations once they are concluded.
Next week, NHSE/I will be sending posters and counter cards to all practices in England to support the NHS ‘Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) – Help Us Help You, Get Protected’ campaign - as mandated within the 1920 GP Contract. These materials have been developed to support practices in encouraging their patients to get protected against measles, mumps and rubella, by getting the MMR vaccination. Posters and reception counter cards will be posted to GP practices for w/c 20 January 2020.
The BMA’s England GP committee has voted not to accept a contract agreement with NHS England and condemned the recently-published draft service specifications outlining what is expected of Primary Care Networks (PCNs)1 over the next four years.
Members of the committee, who met in London on Thursday 16 January, were presented with a package of changes but voted against accepting them. The GPC’s executive team will now return to negotiations with NHS England. Details of the package remain confidential.
A separate motion condemned the draft service specifications, put forward by NHS England and NHS Improvement in December, and called for a Special Conference of English LMCs3 to allow GP reps from across the country to debate and consider the outcome of contract negotiations.
Receive the latest updates from us and in real time on X (formerly Twitter) @SSTLMC. Retweets for interest; not necessarily endorsement.
The LMC office is open Monday to Thursday 9am to 5pm. We endeavour to respond to all enquiries within 5 working days. In the first instance, please use our Contact Us page.
You can also visit our CV19 page for the latest CV19 guidance.
