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GP
bulletin July 2002
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In
this bulletin
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Introduction
Welcome to
the twelfth edition of the GP Bulletin, aiming to keep you up
to date with useful information for your daily work.
If you would
like to receive the bulletin by e-mail, please forward your details
to gpbulletin@doctors.org.uk, giving
your name, practice name and GMC number.
Please send
feedback or views on the GP Bulletin to me at sonny.dutta@doh.gsi.gov.uk
Sonny Dutta
Primary
Care Development Officer
Editor,
GP Bulletin
Department
of Health
Quarry
House
Quarry
Hill
Leeds
LS2
7UE
Other
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- New
dispensing fee scales for GPs
The new dispensing feescales for GPs, applicable from 1 May
2002, can be found on the internet at: www.doh.gov.uk/pricare/fees.htm
Please contact Katy Lindfield with any queries at katy.lindfield@doh.gsi.gov.uk
Practice level incentives
In March 2001 the Prime Minister announced an extra £100m towards
local incentive schemes to promote new ideas that improve patient
care, supporting the delivery of NHS Plan targets and local
health improvement and modernisation plans.
Resources were made available to PCTs to work directly with
GP practices and primary care professionals to create incentive
schemes that encourage innovation and service modernisation
and development.
To reward those practices that have achieved in whole or in
part the targets agreed with the relevant PCT, an additional
£50m was made available to PCTs at the beginning of April. Reward
funds may be reinvested in further developing primary care services,
or paid in non-consolidated cash bonuses to staff (these bonuses
are superannuable).
The £50m for 2002/3 schemes was allocated to health authorities
in April. Please contact your PCT if you are not already discussing
in detail what schemes you wish to incentivise this year.
To help practices improve service delivery and share best practice,
the Department of Health has created a new database. It has
the ability to search by keyword, enabling practices to view
schemes from across the county. There is also a discussion forum
allowing important information to be shared.
Due to the sensitive nature of information on this database,
a password and username are required. Details are available
from tamara.newman@doh.gsi.gov.uk
or tel 0113 2546351.
Guidance on the investing in primary care funds is available
at www.doh.gov.uk/pricare/investment/index.htm
Doctors with performance concerns and the National
Clinical Assessment Authority
The chief medical officer, Professor Sir Liam Donaldson,
has written to primary care organisations on 12 June 2002 to
remind them to consider asking the National Clinical Assessment
Authority (NCAA) for advice when they have serious concerns
about the performance of a doctor.
The text of his letter follows:
The purpose of this letter is to remind you to consider asking
the National Clinical Assessment Authority (NCAA) for advice
when you have serious concerns about the performance of a doctor,
which might lead to their suspension or removal from the list.
This underlines the guidance we issued in December 2001 in Delivering
Quality in Primary Care - Health Authority (and Primary Care
Trust) Management of Primary Care Practitioners Lists - General
Practitioners (see DOH website: - www.doh.gov.uk/ pclists/advice.htm).
The NCAA is very willing to be involved with individual problems
at an early stage and maybe then can obviate the need for suspension.
The NCAA was established in 2001 to provide a service to the
NHS in managing concerns about the performance of doctors. For
general practitioners, the NCAA provides advice to health authorities
and primary care trusts (PCTs) about local handling of cases
and about good local procedures for managing general practitioners
whose performance gives cause for concern. They also undertake
assessments of a doctor's performance where this is necessary
and make recommendations for how concerns may be addressed.
The NCAA can be contacted on tel 0207 273 0850. Details of the
NCAA's procedures can be found on their website at www.ncaa.nhs.uk
Yours sincerely
SIR LIAM DONALDSON
CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER
The Departmental policy contact for the NCAA is Tim Lund on
0113 2545046 or e-mail tim.lund@doh.gsi.gov.uk
Accreditation of organised providers of out-of-hours
services
From 1 October 2002, GPs who do not deliver their own out-of-hours
service will only be able to contract with organised providers
of out-of-hours services (GP co-ops and deputising services)
that have been accredited.
Guidance for individual GPs, PCTs and organised providers of
out-of-hours services about the way in accreditation is to be
introduced is set out in The Roles and Responsibilities of
Those Engaged in the Delivery of GP Out-of-Hours Services
The new scheme has been introduced to ensure that all organised
providers are capable of delivering the high quality service
defined by the independent review of GP out-of-hours services,
Raising standards for patients: New partnerships in out-of-hours
care
However, while assuring quality of service is one key objective,
the approach to accreditation that has been adopted is designed
to help all providers develop and improve their services.
To support organised providers and PCTs as they take on these
new roles, a detailed handbook for all those involved in accreditation
has been developed jointly by the Royal College of General Practitioners
and the Department of Health. It is being supplemented by a
series of training conferences for organised providers during
July and August, to be followed in November and December by
events for PCTs.
Finally, there will be additional financial support for both
PCTs and organised providers as they prepare for and participate
in the first round of accreditation visits between January 2003
and March 2004.
The handbook and other publications mentioned above are at www.doh.gov.uk/pricare/oohreview.htm
For further details, please contact Catherine Davies on 0113
2546602 or
e-mail catherine.davies@doh.gsi.gov.uk
Skin Cancer - Department of Health SunSafe
Web Pages
This summer, the Department of Health has launched new SunSafe
web pages (www.doh.gov.uk/sunsafe)
to promote awareness on the causes of skin cancer.
The pages provide easy-to-understand advice and have been designed
with children in mind, since greater exposure to the sun in
childhood may increase risk of malignant melanoma in adulthood.
Risk of skin cancer increases with sun exposure over time so
it is important to develop sun safety awareness early in life.
The SunSafe web pages are part of a coordinated sun awareness
campaign with key collaborators, such as Cancer Research (UK),
the British Association of Dermatologists and the National Radiological
Protection Board.
Skin cancer has the highest incidence of any cancer in the UK.
Males are vulnerable, as they tend to be resistant to changing
their behaviour to reduce sun exposure. Fair-skinned people
are especially vulnerable.
Skin cancer - the facts
- Nearly
all skin cancer is caused by over-exposure to the sun and is
preventable if proper protective measures are taken
- 40,500
skin cancer cases are registered annually in the UK, 6,000 being
malignant melanoma. Under-reporting may mean that the figure
understates the true number of cases
- Three-quarters
of all skin cancer deaths are from malignant melanoma.
Further
details on SunSafe can be obtained by email to the following
mailbox address: Sunsafe@doh.gsi.gov.uk
Personal Medical Services update
This is a summary of progress on PMS since the report from
the 'listening events' held for PMS providers and commissioners
at the end of last year.
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The
new PMS agreement and simplified application process
The core contract, seen as being too restrictive, has been
replaced with a more flexible PMS agreement, which has been
well received. Work continues to make the guidance as simple
as possible, and to make the application process a lot less
bureaucratic.
- Support
and information The team's website and helpline are both
up and running. The website (www.doh.gov.uk/pmsdevelopment)
includes guidance and legislation, frequently asked Q&As and
a discussion board.
The PMS helpline number is 0845 900 0008.
- Networks
of support The facilitators network is now complete, with
one facilitator covering every new Strategic Health Authority
area. The team is also establishing a professional mentor/peer
support scheme, which will include GPs, nurses and practice
managers. A small cohort of primary care professionals are helping
to set up and run the scheme. Further details will be available
shortly.
- PMS
Competency Framework To address issues of development, minimum
standards and maximising output from pilots, a PMS Competency
Framework has been developed jointly with NatPact. This is a
self-assessment tool designed as a guide to enable PCTs to identify
their strengths and weaknesses when providing and commissioning.
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Nursing
issues Barbara Stuttle, director of integrated care executive
nurse, Castle Point & Rochford PCT, has joined the development
team to help bridge the gap on PMS issues relating to the
nursing fields, skill mix options and a more integrated approach
to PMS uptake. Barbara will also provide support to nurses.
Sale of goodwill - clarification
The April edition of the GP bulletin advised that, following
the abolition of the Medical Practices Committee, the Family
Health Services Appeal Authority (SHA) would now consider
sale of goodwill applications.
There has been some confusion about the purpose of these applications.
The authority's function is to consider whether proposed transactions
formally submitted to it involve the sale of goodwill of a
medical practice. If satisfied that no such sale is involved
or proposed, it is empowered to issue a certificate. Any request
for a certificate that indicated a sale or purchase at substantially
above the market value would have to be refused.
Further information on the sale of goodwill can be found at
www.doh.gov.uk/pricare/workforce/goodwillsale.htm.
Or contact Katie Cusick on 0113 2545850 or e-mail katie.cusick@doh.gov.uk
Asylum seekers
Health and social care policy for asylum seekers is now being
coordinated by a small section in the Department of Health.
The team aims to keep all those who are working on the health
of asylum seekers informed of developments within the department
and elsewhere. For example, work is now well advanced with
the Refugee Council to produce a resource pack of advice and
good practice covering health, social care and mental health
services. It is hoped to launch this later in the summer.
If you would like to be kept up-to-date on developments, contact
Michael Swaffield on 0113 254 5002 or e-mail michael.swaffield@doh.gsi.gov.uk
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Multi-lingual
appointment card
The Department of Health has also supported the development
of 'HARP WEB' - the Health for Asylum Seekers and Refugees
Portal - which has been developed by the East of England Asylum
Support Consortium, West Norfolk Primary Care Trust and the
University of East London.
The portal (www.harpweb.org.uk)
offers fast, free access to a wide range of up-to-date information,
contacts and specialist services. As part of this development,
a multi-lingual, multi-agency appointment card is available
at www.communicate-health.org.uk
It enables details of the appointment to be written in English,
then translated and printed into one of 30 other languages.
In pilot work it significantly reduced failed appointment
rates.
Risk Assessment - a new CD-ROM guide for
general practice
Help GPs to assess risks posed to all those working in general
practice is the aim of a new interactive CD-ROM Risks
Assessment: a guide for general practice, produced
jointly by the Health Development Agency and the Health and
Safety Executive.
One of the few risk assessment resources for staff working
in general practice, the CD-ROM provides a general introduction
to non-clinical risk assessment, for example looking at the
risk of slips, trips and falls occurring on the premises.
The CD-ROM takes the user through the risk assessment process
and helps staff make decisions on what prevention or control
measures are needed, and how to prioritise further action.
It is a flexible in-house training resource, suitable for
individual or group training sessions and is intended to be
used alongside formal risk assessment training.
Copies of the CD-ROM are available to all general practices
through their PCT Clinical Governance leads or direct by calling
the Health Development Agency's publication distributors on
0870 121 4194.
New educational opportunities at Warwick
The Centre for Primary Health Care Studies at the University
of Warwick, established in 1998, now offers a broad range
of part-time postgraduate awards, certificates, diplomas and
masters programmes.
These are all flexible courses designed to meet the needs
of those leading and involved with health care. They can be
taken part-time over a period of up to eight years. The courses
are all multi-disciplinary and aim to develop understanding
of different dimensions of health care delivery, including
policy, organisation and practice.
The MA/MSc Applied Health Studies Programme
Five programmes are currently offered, each including a mix
of core and optional modules:
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Primary
Health Care Practice
- Primary
Health Care: Policy, Organisation & Practice
- Diabetes
Care
- Palliative
Care
-
Emergency
Care
In addition, a MA/MSc in Medical Education will be launched
later in 2002. A range of modules and short courses are currently
offered. For more information on these and other courses,
visit
www.warwick.ac.uk/primary_care/courses or contact Julie
Clee, CPHCS, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL. Tel
(024) 7657 3958, e-mail J.Clee@warwick.ac.uk
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12 July 2002 |
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