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Welcome to our News RoundupA digest of news reports, press comment and current management topics specifically selected and prepared for Practice Managers
In each article there are link(s) to other websites - clicking on a link will open a new window (or a new Tab if you are using tabbed browsing). Close that window/tab to return here.
Pop-up blockers (Windows XP, Google, Yahoo and others). If you have a pop-up blocker enabled, the links below may not open. So if you click on a link and nothing happens, hold down the Ctrl key and click the link again (holding the Ctrl key overrides the pop-up blocker)
Issue 62 – 8th May 2008
Editorial
Now that the DH has released its interim guidance on extended GP opening hours, PCOs are busy putting into place what they consider to be an appropriate LES or DES, or it seems a combination of both, in their respective areas. Let’s hope that the profession’s calls for local negotiations, rather than the top down government led approach of previous years, doesn’t come to haunt practices. From various exchanges on our Discussion Forum it appears that there will be some winners and some losers, dependent on the flexibility which your PCO adopts and the power that your LMC can exercise in the negotiations. I hope the term “postcode lottery” is not on the lips of GPs and practice managers as it has been with patients in the past. If indeed practices apply for the LES or DES – after all it does only run until 2010 and what will happen after then? “It’s included in your baseline…” is another well known phrase that springs to mind!Extended GP Practice Opening Hours: DH Release of Interim Guidance
Ben Dyson wrote to PCTs and SHAs with details of the Interim Guidance to support the implementation arrangements for commissioning extended opening hours. This interim guidance is ahead of Directions for the DES specification and SFE amendments for 2008/09 which are in the process of being put in place. Final guidance will be published when the Directions/SFE are in place. The guidance explains that PCTs and GP practices can agree interim arrangements for introducing extended hours and contains information for reporting/monitoring PCTs monthly progress for extended hours implementation as outlined in the 2008/09 operating framework.QOF Aspirations
The negotiated agreement is that aspiration payments should be increased to 70% to deal with cash-flow issues arising from the extension to the deadline for achievement payments until the end of June. However the increased aspiration payments are not legally due unless and until the Statement of Financial Entitlements has been amended accordingly. When the SFE is amended QMAS will increase aspiration payments to 70% and will calculate arrears of aspiration payments for the period of the 08/09 financial year prior to the new SFE coming into force. PCTs should not make any local payments to bring aspiration payments up to 70% as there will be a one-off national catch-up which cannot take account of such payments.Advice on Charging Patients and Involvement with Private Companies
The BMA’s General Practitioner’s Committee (GPC) has released two sets of frequently asked questions (FAQs). The first focuses on charging patients for services and covers non-registered patients, Hepatitis B vaccinations, private prescriptions, and selling OTC drugs – much of this advice has not changed from that given previously although there is a new opinion and a warning about limited companies charging patients for NHS Services, especially where the patient’s own GP is a director.http://www.lmc.org.uk/uploads/files/guidance/gpcfaqschargingpatientsapril08.pdf
The second FAQ looks at involvement with private companies and other health professionals, and deals with renting surgery space, receiving payment for work with private companies, recommending and/or promoting a private service, and working with research companies.
Strengthening family doctor services
New GP practices for under served areas and new proposals for £105 million investment have been set out by Health Secretary Alan Johnson – he has underlined the Government's commitment to improving family doctor services alongside further plans to tackle long-standing inequalities in GP provision.
Twelve new GP practices will be set up in some of the more poorly served areas in England. A consultation will also shortly be launched with the BMA on a proposed £105 million investment in existing GP practices to further expand clinical services and to improve access for patients, as well as the implementation of the Doctors' and Dentists' Review Body annual recommendations for GP pay.
The full press release is at:David Cameron’s speech on his vision for Primary Care made at the Kings’ Fund
There is a transcript of this speech on the Tory Party website in which David Cameron set out his vision for the future of general practice. He called for a bottom-up reform of the health service, to give more power to NHS professionals and more choice to patients. In particular, he warned that polyclinics should not be imposed on local communities without public support and the backing of local GPs. Details at:http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=news.story.page&obj_id=143765
Over 10 NHS security breaches in the last 6 months
E-Health Insider Primary Care has said that the NHS has reported more than ten data security breaches to the Information Commissioner in the six months since the loss of 25m child benefit records, and these are just the ones that have been reported. The Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, has revealed that his office has been notified of almost 100 data breaches by public, private and third sector organisations since the security breach at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in November. Of the 94 breaches reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), 66% were reported by public bodies of which a fifth were NHS organisations. Information that has gone missing includes unencrypted laptops and computer discs, memory sticks and paper records. The ICO says information has been stolen, gone missing in the post and whilst in transit with a courier. The material contains a wide range of personal details including financial and health records. A spokesperson for the ICO told EHI Primary Care no further details would be released about the breaches within the NHS. She added: “We don’t want to name and shame people but it is astonishing how many breaches have occurred since the HMRC incident.” Organisations are encouraged to notify the ICO of data breaches but are not legally obliged to do so.
Choose and Book bill reaches £100m
EHI Primary Care also reports that the government’s e-booking service Choose and Book has cost almost £100m so far. In an answer to a parliamentary question Health Minister Ben Bradshaw said that total costs to date for the development, delivery and maintenance of the Choose and Book IT system total £98.9m. The e-booking system was due to be used for all first outpatient appointment booking between GPs and hospitals by December 2005 but that original deadline was missed by a huge margin. Since then take-up of Choose and Book has missed a series of other targets including the DH requirement that 90% of referrals for first outpatient appointments be made through Choose and Book by March 2007. Take-up is currently around 50% but fears that usage would drop off after the national GP incentive scheme, the directed enhanced service for choice and booking, finished at the end of March have so far proved unfounded.Problems experienced by pharmacies with Electronic Prescription Service
Only 11% of pharmacies enabled for the Electronic Prescription Service are scanning every barcode prescription with problems including slow download speeds, the barcodes themselves being too faint to scan and slow log-in times, according to a survey. A total of 365 pharmacies took part in a survey, carried out jointly by the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee and the National Pharmacy Association, during January and February this year. The survey found that although 80% of respondents were enabled for release one of EPS only just half of those (56%) were scanning prescriptions and only 11% were scanning every barcoded prescription. If you are working with pharmacies in the EPS you can read more about this survey at:http://www.ehiprimarycare.com/news/3698/
one_in_ten_eps_pharmacies_scanning_all_barcodesHCA Initiative from WIPP to go to Royal College of Nursing
The Working in Partnership Programme (WiPP) has announced that its HCA Initiative is moving to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). Its move is being formally marked at the RCN's annual conference in Bournemouth. This is the first of the WiPP resources to move to a new, permanent home as the programme heads towards completion at the end of June 2008. While HCAs have been a feature of hospital workforces for many years, capitalising on their integration into GP practices is a relatively new but rapidly growing trend. WIPP has been a pioneering force in this work and has developed a toolkit and range of resources to help and encourage the recruitment and training of healthcare assistants.Urgent review of SCR consent model recommended
EHI Primary Care reports that an independent evaluation of the Summary Care Record by a University College London research team has recommended an urgent review of its implied consent model and questioned whether a national system should be rejected in favour of a series of linked smaller systems. The report on the SCR early adopter programme raises a series of issues to which it recommends that Connecting for Health pays urgent attention, including a review of the existing consent model. The 138 page report, which apparently is worth reading for those who can spare the time, is at:Website for Home Oxygen Health Professionals>
The Home Oxygen Service Health Professionals website now sits alongside that for patients and carers and can be found on the following address:The site will be updated in further consultation with Health Professionals, and welcomes feedback and comments as to how it should develop to be of maximum benefit to colleagues wishing to find out more about the service and the resources available.
And finally ……
“Leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it in themselves.”
Stephen Covey - Writer and Business LeaderIssued by First Practice Management Ltd. - the Home of Practice Management
If you have any comments on this document or feedback on any of our other information and support services please contact us at mail@firstpracticemanagement.co.uk
Disclaimer
News Roundup uses third party information and links to third-party websites, but neither endorses nor can guarantee the accuracy or authenticity of these sources
