Consortium of
Lancashire&CumbriaLMCs

We are providing support and advice to practices on a daily basis by telephone and email and will be making resources available online here for you to access.

Please contact us with any specific issues you require support with.

COVID-19: Practices being open over bank holidays

Changes to the GP contract have been made which means the April bank holiday dates (10th and 13th) are now identified as normal working days for GP practices. Please see 3a and 3b: www.legislation.gov.uk

The position for the May bank holidays will be confirmed next month.

Our LMC HR team is handling many queries relating to this. Below is guidance provided for practices and specific queries can be emailed to us via hr@nwlmcs.org

• COVID-19 Practices open over the bank holidays
• Furlough leave

Death Verification, Certification and Cremation Form 4

• Clarification on who can verify a death – Covid-19
• Key Information for all Medical Practitioners (Cumbria Registration Service)
• Information to Doctors regarding Death Certification and Referral to the Coroner (Lancashire)
• BMA Guidance on Death Verification, Certification and Cremation Forms – April 2020
• BMA Guidance on Remote Verification of Expected Death– April 2020
• GOV.UK Verifying death in times of emergency – May 2020

Useful resources and guidance

Letter RE: medication requests – LMC, Community Pharmacy Lancashire & Community Pharmacy Cumbria

Coronavirus guidance for employers

Advice RE: patient requests for ‘rescue packs’ and inhalers

COVID-19 Patient requests for fit notes – LMC guidance for practices

Hotel accommodation for NHSE Staff: COVID-19

Coronavirus Patient Information Leaflets in 32 different languages

IMPORTANT Caring for people at highest risk during COVID-19 pandemic EMIS NHSE 28th March

Updated advice for pregnant women who are working during the coronavirus outbreak – 26th March

PPE Update from Dr Richard Vautrey – BMA GPC England – 26th March

The BMA COVID-19 webpage

• Visit the webpage
• Updated daily with clear, practical guidance on issues such as Remote Consultations and Homeworking.
• This reference directory also offers links to official information including PHE guidance for primary care www.gov.uk and NHS England guidance for primary care www.england.nhs.uk

The BMA has also published FAQs on your contract terms and conditions which will be updated regularly.

Further to this letter from BMA’s GP Committee Chair to the profession on 19th March 2020, RCGP have published guidance on workload prioritisation during COVID-19.

BMA have produced a COVID-19 toolkit for GP practices during the Coronavirus pandemic – find it online here.

Important changes are coming into effect on 6 April 2020 concerning the information that employers must provide to its employees and workers. The changes will apply to all employees and workers commencing work on or after 6 April 2020, so action should be taken now to ensure that you are ready for these changes.

Find out more

The Government announces details of the 2021 Immigration System. Find out more

Please see the LMC summary of the GP contract.

Public Health England has asked BMA GPC to cascade the following information regarding a supply issue with the flu nasal vaccine, requiring a phasing of supply of the vaccine:

Recommendations for General Practitioners

GPs are requested to implement the seasonal influenza programme as outlined in the Direct Enhanced Service Specification (www.england.nhs.uk). As part of this GPs are required to call in those children who are eligible for flu vaccination, and to undertake recall for those children in clinical risk groups for influenza. Because of the phasing of supplies PHE recommends planning the childhood vaccination programme using following priorities:

• Children in high risk groups aged 6 months to 2 years – these children should be called and offered quadrivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (QIVe)
• Children in high risk groups from 2 to 18 years should be prioritised and offered LAIV (unless contraindicated).
  • those aged 2-3 years and age 11-18 years should be called in and offered LAIV or a suitable quadrivalent influenza vaccine (QIV)
  • those of primary school age (4-10 years) will be invited through schools, but should be vaccinated with LAIV or QIV if they choose to present in general practice
  • Where a practice does not have LAIV available, vaccination of children in high risk groups should not be delayed and a suitable QIV should be offered as an alternative.
• Healthy children aged 2-3 years should be called and offered LAIV as the practice receives stock. Two year olds who are receiving vaccine for the first season are a higher priority than 3 year olds.

Responsible ordering will help support the direction of stock to those with greatest immediate need as it becomes available. Practice staff are asked to only order vaccine needed for the forthcoming week, even if this is below the maximum quota and to avoid stockpiling. Close adherence to the vaccine storage in the cold chain is essential to avoid vaccine wastage.

Further details on eligible groups can be found in ‘The Green Book’: www.gov.uk

An information leaflet is being developed for parents to explain which children are eligible for vaccination and where this will be delivered and will be posted shortly on the PHE website.