 Following this week’s announcement from PSNC regarding the National Advanced Influenza vaccination service to be introduced for the 2015/16 flu season, Community Pharmacies will now want to make sure that they are ready to launch their service with effect from 1 September, the content of this email should help you.
We are still unsure how the service will affect the locally commissioned service and will provide details as they become available however in the meantime Pharmacies should now concentrate on procurement of vaccine stock and training to ensure they are ready. Stock It is vital that, if you haven’t done so already, you make arrangements to obtain stock. Following the announcement about the national service it is likely that demand will increase quickly and you won’t want to miss out. Training Requirements The recent announcement did not provide details in relation to the training requirements for the national flu service. Fortunately, LPCs in the North Region had already arranged a training provider in readiness for the roll out of a locally commissioned service. We fully expect that the training we have commissioned (Through the Queen Elizabeth NHS Hospital) will meet the requirements of any national guidelines when they are issued. There will be 6 training sessions provided across the North East in August, you can register with the one most convenient to you irrespective of where you work. Full details of dates, times, venues and costs can be accessed by visiting the flu pages of the Northern Pharmacy website http://www.northernpharmacy.net/ The site must also be used to register for attendance at one of the sessions. Capacity is limited to 25 at each session and we anticipate demand to be high so please book asap to avoid disappointment. NB: Pharmacists do not have to use the LPC organised training, you are free to access a training provider of your choice, some options are attached to this email. Included on the flu Training link on the Northern Pharmacy site are details of the training requirements that were to be implemented by NHS England North as part of the local service. LPCs have no way of knowing whether these will be replicated in the national specification however you might be able to use them as a guide to help you determine whether you need to do full face to face training or an online refresher only. Please note the section in relation to Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Adults section. The LPC encourages all contractors to prepare themselves in terms of training and stock and keep an eye on your email for further information.
0 Comments
 PSNC have just announced a National flu vaccination service.
Details can be found on the PSNC website by clicking the link below. http://psnc.org.uk/our-news/contractor-announcement-community-pharmacy-funding-settlement-and-national-flu-vaccination-service-for-201516/ Whilst the LPC welcomes this news the new service will obviously impact on our locally commissioned enhanced service. We will be looking into this and will advise you of any further information as soon as we are able. At this stage we are unaware of the claiming mechanism, training requirements etc for the new service. Hopefully things will get clearer over the next few days/weeks In the meantime the LPC has arranged training for the local service and it is likely that that training will be acceptable for the national service. We would encourage contractors to proceed on the basis of the local service until we have further clarity. Details of the training will be released later on today.  Pharmacies with core hours on the 26th December will be expected to open. Please see the message below from NHS England and please note that if you have core contractual hours on a Saturday, you will be expected to be open and work those hours on Saturday 26th December. If you have supplementary hours, you can notify a change of hours and close for the supplementary hours but you MUST provide 90 days’ notice of the change to your supplementary hours, i.e. notification by Sunday 27th September at the latest. Any queries regarding this should be directed to NHS England. NHS England considers community pharmacy to be an important part of our system resilience.
We have been promoting community pharmacy to the public as a first stop for self-care and professional advice to elderly people who are "feeling under the weather". In order to support this we will be asking all primary care contractors whose contracted hours include Saturdays to open their normal hours on 26 December 2015. Local arrangements will be put in place to ensure adequate pharmaceutical services are available on the Boxing Day Bank Holiday on 28th December 2015. Thank you for your attention. Kind regards Helen Helen Scott (Mrs) Primary Care Commissioning Support (Pharmacy & Optometry) NHS England – North (Cumbria and North East) The Old Exchange Barnard Street Darlington DL3 7DR Direct Dial: 0113 824 7217 Switch Board: 0113 825 1600 Fax: Email: [email protected] Web: www.england.nhs.uk  Further to our news that Public Health England are going to commission a flu service through community Pharmacy please find below the latest update. Service Specifications This SLA is still being produced and is similar to last year however the main highlights are as follows
Training Although the SLA is still in draft form the extract below shows the training reauirements The pharmacy contractor is responsible for ensuring the requirements for staff training arei n place and staff involved in the administration of the vaccine must:
If you have not been trained before, you must attend formal training as stated in section a). If you have already undertaken this training, then you need to complete an annual update on anaphylaxis and basic life support. There is no stipulation about whether this is face to face or online. In addition, you must have completed appropriate safeguarding training. We are also expecting that section (c) be removed. Novartis - LPC Commissioned Training Those of you who trained with Novartis in previous years will have received an email from Novartis recently in which they advised that this year the company will not be providing flu training. The LPC have spoken with Novartis and can confirm this is the case. They have provided the LPC with a list of alternative training providers. The list is provided below for your information. As well as the providers listed on the attachment, the LPC is looking to another local provider, (The QE Hospital in Gateshead) to provide training and a private PGD. The discussions are on going at the moment and we will issue details as soon as we can. If you prefer to book your training with a different provider, please do so. There is no obligation to use LPC commissioned training as long as you fulfil the criteria in the service specification above. Vaccine Stock You should now also look to order your flu vaccines to ensure delivery for the start of the service on 1st September. You can use any brand of vaccination for providing the NHS vaccination service. Novartis will still be offering vaccines and you can order from them direct using the accounts that were set up last year. If you did not buy Novartis Vaccines last year you will need to contact them direct to set up an account. ********** 100% Pharmacy Coverage *************** The commissioner of the service is looking togged 100% coverage through pharmacies this year. Last year 56% of Pharmacies in Gateshead, South Tyneside and Sunderland provided the service. Many of these were new to the service but went on to do really well through it. The LPC would echo the commissioners comments that it would be great to see 100% coverage and we are here to help. If you have any concerns or queries please don't hesitate to contact us and we will support you to ensure your pharmacy is up and running and has a successful flu season. The service has gone from strength to strength with each year seeing a doubling of the number of vaccines provided. Make sure your pharmacy is on board and not left out of this success. **********************************************************  Alternative Training Providers |
Copies of our older Paper Based News Letters (The LPC News) can be found by clicking below.
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
