Blog Archives

Poster and screen regards GP services open over christmas and new year 2016/07 bank holidays

23/12/2016

Please see the meesage below from South Tynesdie CCG:-

Dear Colleagues

Apologies for the late circulation, but the CCG has worked with our local GPs to provider surgeries over Christmas and New Year bank holidays. Patients just need to ring 111 to find out how to book. Please find attached both a screen (media file) and also a localised poster (details South Tyneside GP practices only). The screen can be used by all north east pharmacies

The poster is ONLY for South Tyneside contractors
Please display as appropriate within your local pharmacy.
With thanks and kind regards

Jo Farey
Head of Commissioning - Primary & Community Services
South Tyneside CCG
Direct Line: 0191 283 2872
Mobile: 07786 190 125

South Tyneside Specific

North East

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Emergency Supply Service Launched - Incredible Pharmacy Response - Please Note Below

23/12/2016

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Thank you to those pharmacies which have signed up to provide the Emergency Supply Service. The timescale for sign up was extremely tight, nonetheless the number of pharmacies across the North East and Cumbria which have registered for the service is very impressive. (633 Pharmacies out of 740 accross the region)
The mobilisation of the service has demonstrated a real "can do" mentality on behalf of community pharmacy and Local Pharmaceutical Committees, with support from colleagues at NHS England.
To ensure that this good impression and momentum is maintained throughout the duration of the service and beyond please could you note the following important aspects of the service:

You will have noted from the SLA and FAQ's that the contractor has a duty to ensure that pharmacists involved in the provision of the service have relevant knowledge and are appropriately trained in the operation of the service. Please note that this requirement extends to locums employed in pharmacies. This also means that locums must have access to PharmOutcomes (PO). This will enable them to continue to monitor PO for 111 referrals and also record all medication supplied via this service.
Secondly, if a situation should arise whereby your pharmacy has established that the provision of an emergency supply is appropriate (paragraph 3.1 of the SLA refers) but your pharmacy does not hold the necessary stock the pharmacy must make every effort to identify another pharmacy participating in the scheme, which does hold the stock, and signpost the patient to that pharmacy. If it does not prove possible to locate a pharmacy which does hold the stock then the patient should be advised to make an appointment with their own GP. The patient MUST not be referred back to NHS 111 for further advice/information. You must ensure that you do what ever is neccessary to help the patient in the same way you would if they had walked in to the pharmacy asking for help.

Many thanks again for your support. If you need any information/clarification please dont hesitate to contact your LPC.

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URGENT Breaking News - Pharmacy Emergency Supply Service Locally Commissioned - Tight Times Scales

22/12/2016

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On Friday afternoon, NHS England agreed to commission PERMSS (Pharmacy Emergecny Repeat Medicine Supply Service) in the North East and Cumbria. We appreciate that this is very late notice and also coincides with the busiest week in the year for community pharmacies. Nevertheless, PERMMS also provides an opportunity for community pharmacies to make a valuable contribution to the patient experience over Christmas and New Year and will also help to alleviate demand on other NHS services at this critical time of the year.

Due to the late commissioning of the service, the timescales are extremely tight. If you would like to opt into the service, then this needs to be completed today (Monday 19th December) or, at the very latest tomorrow (Tuesday, 20th December). However, it would be preferable if you could sign up as early as possible to the scheme as the service will be going live on Wednesday 21st December and the Directory of Services needs to be completed for ‘go live’. It is also important for as many community pharmacies to sign up to the service as possible, in order to optimise the effectiveness of the service and the coverage of the service for patients.
You can access the SLA and the FAQ on the Northern Pharmacy Webpage. Click Here

Once you have read them please log in to pharmoutocme and fill int he SLA Sign up Module.

Update - 22nd December

Thiis is a reminder about the Emergency Supply Service that has been locally commissioned by NHS England. If you are interested in offering the service you need to sign up through Pharmoutcomes TODAY (22nd December).

The service will run for three weeks. You will be paid £14 for the consultation and first item supplied. Any subsequent items will be reimbursed a fee of 50p. All medication will be reimbursed at drug tariff plus VAT.

Below is our original message about the service. The link will allow you to download SLA and FAQ's Please ensure you read both documents thoroughly to understand the service and ensure all pharmacists, including locums and all support staff are aware of the service.

Please Note: This is NOT the national NUMSAS service. The local service will be relevant to all pharmacies as it includes in hours as well as out of hours.

The service module will appear on PharmOutcomes from 21st December on receipt of your completed service on Pharmoutocmes.

The LPC acknowledges that this is an extremely tight timescale however the sign up process is very quick and simple and we would encourage all pharmacies to sign up.

P.S. Boots, Lloyds and Well Pharmacy have signed up centrally so if you are part of those groups you do not need to fill in the sign up modules however you need to ensure you are familiar with the service spec, SLA and FAQ's which can be downloaded here.

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Holiday Rota Activity Audit

20/12/2016

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Please help us to help you…

The LPC would like to carry out a survey of activities undertaken if you have been directed to open over the holiday period by NHSE. To that end, if you have been directed to open, we would like you to access a simple survey below.
The survey should take no longer than a few minutes to fill in, but will give us very valuable data for the future.
Please be advised although we are asking for your details, this is purely for admin purposes. Any subsequent report will be anonymised.

Holiday Opening Activity Audit

Pharmacy Name *

Pharmacy F Code *

Date Opened *

No of Hours Opened *

If the answere to any of the below is zero please state "0" .

No of Items dispensed from Walk In Presciptions *

No of Think Pharmacy First Consultations *

No of EHC Consultations *

No of Emergency Supplies *

No of OTC Sales *

No of Any Other Services (Please sate below) *

Services *

How may staff were working on that day (Including pharmacists) *

Any other comments about the day. *

Submit

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Expressions of Interest for offsite Services with the Workplace Alliance

16/12/2016

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The LPC met up recently with members of the Workplace Health Alliance (WHA).

The Alliance wants to provide Stop Smoking Services and NHS Health Checks within workplaces. They approached the LPC to determine whether community pharmacies might be able to be the providers of these services. At this meeting it was agreed that the LPC would write to contractors for expressions of interest in the first instance. If you are interested in carrying out some off-site clinics of this nature, please email our Secretary Louise at [email protected]. (Please note that this is open to all pharmacies in Gateshaed and South Tyneside)

The LPC will be firming up arrangements for the supply of these clinics in the New Year.

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Gateshead EHC Service - Accreditation moving to 'Declaration of Cempetence'

16/12/2016

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The LPC is would like to remind pharmacists in Gateshead that the accreditation process for Gateshead Contractors to supply EHC has been simplified. As per the recently updated PGD, Gateshead Council are using the CPPE declaration of competence (DoC) framework to accredit their pharmacists along with attendance at a face to face update event every 2 years.

New Providers will simply need to fill in the CPPE DoC and then attend a meeting.
Existing Providers have until the end of January 2017 to fill in the DoC.
From 1st February , Pharmoutcomes will verify your DoC on-line once a year, in a similar way to the flu DoC process.

The LPC advise all contractors to log into CPPE and update your declaration of competence

David Brady, Sexual Health Program Lead will be posting the following message on Pharmoutcomes…
“Pharmacists currently accredited and delivering the service (as per 2014-16 PGD Number CP01B, Gateshead Council Levonelle 1500), their training requirements remain valid up to February 1st 2017. An enrolment facility on the EHC Pharmoutcomes template will be active from Feb 1st 2017, in order to facilitate online access of DOCs by the commissioner. For this to take effect and ensure continuation of service by your pharmacy, pharmacists must enable Pharmoutcomes to access their CPPE record and take the opportunity to refresh CPPE packs as necessary”

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Sexual Health South Tyneside C-Card - Expression of Interest

16/12/2016

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South Tyneside Public Health are distributing pharmacies this week with new posters and packs for the chlamydia & Gonorrhoea dual testing scheme. These packs are to be distributed free of charge to all appropriate young people.

There is also the opportunity to engage in the C-Card scheme. If you are interested in joining this scheme please contact Dan Dobson (Dan[email protected]) directly in the first instance. (Please see below details of the scheme and corresponding posters)

You may be interested to know that a new app has been launched recently identifying outlets for C-Card (apparently like the Pokemon Go app). A young person can stand on a street corner with app open and the condom outlet is identified easily.