During the height of the COVID situation the LPC, being made up of working pharmacists, found itself on the thrust into the front line with helping patients. We adapted our communications and used the newly set up PCN networks to cascade salient information to pharmacies.
We have set up a page to record all these communication so you are able to look back through and use it as a resource. This can be access at http://www.gandstlpc.net/pcn-commswww.gandstlpc.net/pcn-comms
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Please see the message below from David Carter, Gateshead & South Tyneside LPC Chairman. "Your LPC is well aware of the fantastic work that pharmacy teams are doing in these truly chaotic and changing times - as we’re all pharmacists and most of us are on the front line ourselves.
We also understand that you’re being bombarded with information from all sides. With this in mind we are acutely aware the communications from the LPC have had to change. As a consequence you will have noticed that we have reduced the frequency of our local LPC news items and have been utilising the the PCN network and network leads to cascade salient information to contractors via WhatsApp messages. This method of communication is quick in these fast moving times and LPC news items take a lot of work to compile. The messages can be targeted easily, so please make sure you are in touch with your PCN lead via the WhatsApp groups that have been set up. As well as keeping in touch with your PCN Lead though, please make sure you are checking your pharmacies NHS Mail for information direct from NHS England as well as ensuring you are on the PSNC Mailing list. See information about PSNC below. Community Pharmacy teams are the unsung heroes of this pandemic; stoically working tirelessly in incredibly difficult circumstances late into the night for patient benefit. I know you have all worked harder than ever before over these last few weeks - even being forced to work over Easter when a break would have been most welcome. I realise, however, that many of you will feel almost overwhelmed with anxiety and stress trying to deal with the pharmacy and your own personal situation. Your patients and wider Society really do appreciate the hard work you are doing - and on a Thursday when the streets are full of clapping neighbours - remember that they are clapping for you! Keep safe," David Carter ![]() Your LPC is well aware of the fantastic work that pharmacy teams are doing in these truly chaotic and changing times.We realise, however, that many of you will feel overwhelmed with anxiety and stress trying to deal with the pharmacy and your own personal situations. In its recent meeting the LPC thought it would be useful to pool together as much information as possible to help. Below is a list of items that may help you to work in the challenging conditions. 1. Business Continuity Ensure that you have reviewed your Business Continuity Plan. Consider planning for staff shortages of up to 50% given the recent government guidance on social distancing strategy. Also consider your cleaning protocols to ensure all surfaces touched by patients and staff are frequently cleaned. Other practical ideas that you may wish to consider under different scenarios within your continuity plan include the following.
Do you have a deep clean plan? We have confirmed with CCG that deep cleaning process is the same for cleaning process you would follow for any other body spillages within your pharmacy. e.g vomit or blood. 3) Pharmacy Closures In the event of closure please follow your processes as well as informing NHS england and local surgeries. A copy of the closure form can be downloaded by clicking here. To help us undertand the local picture we would appreciate it if you copy us in when informing NHS England of any closures. Please copy Louise, our secretary in. Returning Undispensed Prescriptions In event of closure, please consider returning any undispensed prescriptions back to the spine so that other pharmacies can pull them through if needed. 4) Prescription Deliveries Do you have process in place for delivery drivers delivering medications to patients that are self isolating? 5) Supervised Consumption Consider how you will manage any patients on methadone or buprenorphine. Gateshead Recovery Partnership and Humankind in ST have confirmed that supervision may be relaxed and they have been asked to ensure that all scripts have wording for ad hoc temporary closures. Although where indicated on a prescription supervised consumption should be observed under normal circumstances, it is not a legal requirement. If a client reports they are too ill to come in, or are self-isolating, whether on supervised consumption or not, you may like you to observe the following protocol, given that both services are VERY AWARE that pharmacies will NOT be delivering methadone or buprenorphine to clients.
The services have direct access to the LPC and so if there are any changes they will let us know. Again if you think you will need to close, please let our secretary, Louise Lydon, know asap so that we can make the services aware, and again help to plan capacity with other local pharmacies. Bypass Phone Numbers To help facilitate communication, if pharmacies have an alternative phone number that can be contacted in case of emergency, can you please forward this number to the Drug and Alcohol Services. They may also be able to give you their bypass number for emergency use. 6) Collobaration At this time we would ask you to consider working closely with your local pharmacies to potentially share stock, staff and delivery drivers if this becomes necessary for patient care and pharmacy operational requirements. We urge you to speak to your neighbouring pharmacies now and establish channels of communication and cooperation. This could be facilitated by your PCN leads. 7) Combatting Drug Shortages The LPC became aware of GPs considering increasing the duration of prescriptions to “help patients access medication”. We have robustly rejected this with local GP leadership. Any increase in the prescribing duration during the Covid 19 pandemic from monthly repeats to say 56 or 84 day repeats WILL create stock shortages that don’t exist at present and deny patients of important medication. It will also result in increased workload for GPs and pharmacies moving to alternative products. Please push back with surgeries using a similar argument should practices go off message. We do not want artificial shortages to occur as has been seen with panic buying of grocery items in supermarkets. Patient Advice The NPA and CCA have issued an open letter to patients, asking them to act in the interests of the whole community by helping pharmacies maintain vital services. The letter highlights steps to maintain the supply chain in order to prevent shortages. It asks patients to
8) NHS Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) Please ensure you keep an eye on the NHS England website to ensure you use the latest SOP provided. This was originally released in February, however, it has been updated recently.. You can access the SOP via this link. Part of this SOP requires you to have a list of local NHS contacts. The Local NHS England team have now prepared a useful list. This can be downloaded here. 9) GP2Pharmacy Service (South Tyneside) The LPC has been in discussion with ST health collaboration regarding the GP2P service. Please note that as a result of the current COVID19 outbreak, GP receptionists have been informed to temporarily cease referring sore throat symptoms to pharmacies under the GP2P scheme as these patients may be masking Covid 19 symptoms. Further all referrals should be accompanied by a patient telephone number. Please review your current operating procedures & consider telephone screening of all patients & advising not to attend the pharmacy in person if there is any suspicion of Coronavirus. Medication may still be supplied to any patient representative, for other conditions, under the scheme after a telephone consultation with the patient. Key points to note:
The LPC has written to NHS England today, demanding the reinstatement of PERMSS due to patients contacting 111 and the current enormous wait they are experiencing and the result that they are attending pharmacies for urgent medication escalating the workload within pharmacies. If they agree to turn this service back on we will be in touch and it may require speedy sign up as we did in the past. 11) Repeat RX Ordering - Local Processes GP surgeries are increasingly going into lock down - restricting patient access and handling situations remotely. Generic practice emails will be circulated shortly to enable you to order prescriptions this way. Alternatively you may need to post through the locked door in a sealed envelope. There does not seem to be a standard approach so you will need to understand your local surgeries procedures. 12) Communications The NHS / Dept of Health will be communicating and cascading information to pharmacies via their practice NHS Email addresses. Most pharmacies will have these in place but please make sure you are checking it on a regular basis so you are aware of changes or actions required 13 PSNC PSNC have appointed someone to keep abreast of the COVID situation in order to support pharmacies. We would advise you to keep an eye on the PSNC Covid webpage for new information. It is also prudent to joint he PSNC newsletter to ensure any new national information comes your way.We understand that Simon Dukes (PSNC Cheif Executive) has recently been in the media and in discussions with government around help that is needed for pharmacies and we welcome this and hope it results in positive action to help us maintain the valuable pharmacy network that is struggling but is extremely vital. You can see more about this by clicking here. Please see a messages from the local CCG's regarding plaanning for community swabbing of COVID19. If you are interested in volunteering please contact Louise Lydon, our secreary asap. As you will see below we need to provide a list as soon as possible. idealy in the next 24 hours. Message from CCG
As you will have seen in the media, the national and local response to COVID 19 is increasing. As part of preparation to expand availability of staff trained to undertake swabbing of potential COVID 19 cases please could you discuss with your teams as we are likely to need volunteer clinicians to undertake the required training to do so. Anyone who does wish to volunteer will also be provided with appropriate equipment. In addition – we also need to identify admin staff who could support the Local Coordination Centre activity. If you can please let the ccg know whether you are willing to volunteer and we will keep a register should this be required. We need to move quite quickly with this as we anticipate a surge in the need for community swabbing in the coming few days and are in discussions with the IPC teams to facilitate training. I have limited information at the moment but as things become clearer I will keep you informed. I will keep you updated, as this is likely to be a fast moving situation, but I wanted to let you know the ‘ask’ ASAP. ![]() You will have seen that there has been a lot of media coverage about the Coronavirus (COVID19). The government has been in the press explaining its action planning and preparedness of the NHS. Pharmacy will need to be aware of its role within the plan. Please see a summary of some of the things you will need to be aware of. 1. Pharmacy Standard Operating Procedure Document NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE&I) have published a new Coronavirus (COVID-19) guidance for primary care teams. This includes a specific document for community pharmacy teams, which takes the guidance already available on the GOV.UK website, but contextualises it for the community pharmacy environment. This can be accessed by clicking the SOP link below. Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) standard operating procedure – Community pharmacy The guidance explains how to deal with patients presenting in the pharmacy with suspected COVID-19 infection and preparations pharmacy contractors can take to deal with such a scenario. All pharmacy contractors should read the guidance and then undertake appropriate preparations for dealing with potentially infected patients. The global situation with COVID-19 is changing on a daily basis and as such the UK Government’s advice to the population and healthcare providers is being updated on a very regular basis. It is therefore expected that NHSE&I will issue updates to the community pharmacy guidance and pharmacy teams should ensure they keep up to date with the latest guidance on the GOV.UK website. 2. NHS Mail & Electronic WebLinks The NHS / Dept of Health will be comminuciating and cascading information to pharmacies via their practice NHS Email addresses. Most pharmacies will have these in place but please make sure you are checking it on a regular bassis so you are aware of changes or actions required. Please be aware a lot of weblinks within the various sources of information will be changing on a regualr basis so you may need to bookmark certian sites. 3. Government Action Plan You can access the wider government action plan by clicking here. 4. Public Health Posters Within the standard operating procedure there is a link to obtain posters that should be used within the pharmacy. You will need to register to download these. It is useful for pharmacies to register however to aid expedenicy links to download the posters direct are provided at the bottom of this page. 5. Local Issues Your LPC will be liasing with our contacts locally in and will keep you informaed of any local issues or information as it arises. Two current issues we are working on is obtaining the contact information for the pharmacies that are contained in the procedure documents above and also obatining expressions of interest from pharmacies to help with diagnostic swabbing locally. (Seperate emails will follow this with details.) Please make you stay up to date by ensuring your pharmacy teams are on our email distribution list The Public Health posters for use in the pharmacy can be downloaded using the links below.
A4 size posters: Poster for outside pharmacies Affected countries and places poster Northern Italian Towns poster A3 size posters: Poster for outside pharmacies Affected countries and places poster Northern Italian Towns poster |
COVID19
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August 2020
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