Practice Management
Asbestos
Following amendments to the Control of Asbestos Regulations, 2006 which states that all non-domestic premises have a duty to manage asbestos, you will be aware that we have been in negotiation with a fully accredited company, Asbestos Surveying Industries Ltd, to secure discounts for such...
Bite-Size for PMs - Audio & Video Podcasts and Recorded Webinars
You can record your reflections on this form or via your learning diary here: https://www.fourteenfish.com/about/learningdiary CQC are particularly keen to see any evidence of your listening and how you apply it. Bite-Size for Managers - Safer Recruitment Fiona Smith from Kraft HR Consulting...
Blue Badge Scheme
The Blue Badge Scheme enables people with a disability to park in disabled parking spaces. It is for people with a severe mobility problem. It also applies to those who are registered blind, who have severe disabilities in their upper limbs, and children under 3 years with specific medical...
Business Planning and Processes / Transfer of Secondary Care Work
Quality First Click here to download the BMA's guidance outlining ways in which you can: manage inappropriate workload collaborate with others develop new ways of working The Interface between Primary and Secondary Care: This briefing document describes the key national requirements which...
Certification - Non Chargeable
The following is a list of obligations relating to Certification by GPs: GPs are obliged to provide data essential for a clinical referral free of charge. A GP has a statutory duty to supply a registered patient, free of charge, with any of the prescribed certificates set out in Schedule 4 of...
Certification - SCUBA
What should you do if a patient wants you to confirm their suitability to do SCUBA diving? This is not part of GMS so you do not have to provide this service to your patients. You may do so if you feel competent to make this assessment. If you do this work you must consider how you resource...
Certification - Shared Lives
Shared Lives is a national idea rolled out to Local Authorities to encourage citizens to help share the lives of vulnerable adults. It is an excellent scheme that encourages people within communities to help vulnerable adults and get paid, while saving the state significant sums of money. Your...
Covid-19 - Practical and Operational Issues
We are aware that there is a lot of information coming from a number of directions. With this in mind we are creating webpages for various issues that we have been asked about. Workforce Covid-19 - NHS Volunteer Responders - NHSVR for the NHS COVID-19 vaccination...
Covid-19 - Staff Risk Assessments
Risk Assessment Frameworks for Staff in General Practice during Covid-19 Covid-19 has presented a significant challenge in assessing and mitigating risks to all staff in healthcare settings. The early data from Italy indicated a high rate of infection and death amongst healthcare workers and...
CQC Interview Questions for "Registered Managers"
Requirements for Registered Managers Current requirements and guidance are can be found on the CQC's website . Schedule 1 outlines the documentation CQC will require for all Registered Managers: Role of the Registered Manager A summary of the role of the Registered Manager can be accessed...
DBS: Risk Assessing Staff for a DBS Check
Risk Assessment Tool This tool aims to help you risk assess staff for DBS checking. It is, of course, for your Practice to make the final decision, based on the arrangements you currently have in place, but we have provided some scenario based guidance to assist you. In this case, the risk to...
DBS: Wessex LMC and Client Agreement
Please read these Terms & Conditions carefully. . . Introduction The Criminal Records Bureau (from 1st December 2012 working with the Independent Safeguarding Authority as the Disclosure and Barring Service) recommends that each Umbrella Body develops a written agreement between themselves and...
Death Certification
Page Contents Verification of death Coroners Reports Coroner Contacts for Wessex Area Viewing the Body Free from Infection Certificate / Information- The Respective Roles of Coroners and Doctors in Certification of Death The LMC receives many queries on the subject of death...
Display Energy Certificate (DEC) - change in requirements
A DEC will be required where the total useful floor area of the building exceeds 250m² which 'is occupied in whole or part by public authorities and frequently visited by the public'. DECs last for 10 years when the floor area is over 250 metres squared and up to 1,000m². Where the...
Doctors Whose Performance Gives Cause for Concern
Sometimes concerns are raised about a doctor's performance, either by colleagues, patients or the general public. NHS England has responsibility for ensuring that GPs on the performers list are safe to practice and maintain high professional standards (see Statutory Procedures). If you have...
DVLA
DVLA - Consent for the Release of Relevant Medical Information You do not need to see the written consent of your patient to share relevant information with the DVLA, the consent will have been given and this is legally assured In August 2009, rules called Consent by Assurance were implemented...
Fifth Money Laundering Directive (The Trust Register)
On 10 January 2020, the Fifth Money Laundering Directive (5MLD) was transposed into UK law. One objective of the 5MLD was to broaden the scope of trusts required to comply with and sign up to the Trust Register Service (TRS), which may apply to some GP surgeries depending on how they are...
Finance
Page Contents 1. Annual Contract Update 2. Area Teams 3. Childcare Vouchers 4. Controlling Expenditure 5. CQRS 6. Dispensing Practices 7. End of Year Checklist 22/23 8. Enhanced Services - Directed 9. Enhanced Services - Locally 10. Funding Available to General Practice 11. General...
Good Practice Guidelines for GP Electronic Patient Records
The links below give useful guidance on all aspects of GP electronic records, produced by the DOH, in conjunction with RCGP and BMA: Good Practice Guidelines for GP Electronic Patient Records, Version 4, 2011 (Full Version) Good Practice Guidelines for GP Electronic Patient Records, Version 4,...
GP Appointment Data (GPAD)
We are very aware that practices may well be concerned about the publication of the GP Appointment Data at practice level, that is, from 24th November 2022 onwards, to be made available to the public and hence the media. Your LMC and the BMA are equally concerned about the fragility of this...
GP Retainer Scheme
What should I know about the Retainer scheme? February 2021 GPC GP Retention Scheme webinar recording You can now view a video of the GPC GP Retention Scheme webinar, where you will learn about how the GP Retention Scheme works for both employees and employers, and tackles some common...
GP Trainee - Travel Expenses
In July 2019, NHS Employers, the British Medical Association and Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) agreed to introduce provisions in the terms and conditions of service for NHS Doctors and Dentists in Training (England) for additional mileage/expenses for GP trainees. GP trainees who...
Health and Safety
We have put together a comprehensive range of information and resources for Health and Safety, in our guidance book below. Please click on the image to access it. We appreciate that this guidance is a large document. To make it easier to navigate, you will find an Index on page 1. Click on the...
I.T
Remote Consultations See https://www.wessexlmcs.com/covid19remoteconsultationsandit FutureNHS Platform has a wealth of information on the Digital Primary Care Space. It requires sign up to access, but is very quick and easy. Access to electronic patient records Keep up to date with what...
Jury Service for GPs
Jury Service for GPs Question: A partner at a neighbouring practice was recently called for jury service and was surprised to learn that under the new regulations he was not automatically excused. We are a small practice and would find it impossible to manage without a locum. Would NHSE /...
LMC Buying Groups Federation
Wessex LMCs joined the LMC Buying Group in October 2009 to deliver savings to practices without creating any additional work or inconvenience. What does the Buying Group offer? Membership entitles practices to discounts on products and services provided by the Buying Group's suppliers....
Mandatory Training for Practice Staff
There are no statutory regulations that specify how often primary care staff should be trained. Fundamentally, it is important that if anything untoward happened in your practice, the Partners could stand in front of a coroner or judge and justify that the training they had provided for their...
Maternity & Keeping In Touch Days
Up to 10 Keeping-In-Touch (KIT) days can be worked by pregnant employees without it affecting their rights to maternity leave or pay. KIT days cannot be taken during the period of compulsory maternity leave (i.e. the first 2 weeks after the child's birth). This article is extracted from the...
Medical Records - Adopted Children
Under adoption legislation, an adopted child is given a new NHS number, and all previous medical information relating to that child is put into a newly created health record. Any information relating to the identity or whereabouts of the birth parents should not be included in the new record....
Medical Records - Handling and Retention
A brief summary of the more detailed advice is available here which includes advice about how long medical records should be kept. For definitive advice please click here: Medical Records Code of Practice 2021 GMC Good Medical Practice requires that: 'you keep clear, accurate and legible...
New Practice Manager Checklist
Practice Management Tasks For Primary Care GP Practice This document is intended to help identify the numerous tasks that need to be undertaken by the practice management team throughout the year. It is not claimed that it is a complete list, nor will some of the tasks apply to all GP...
NHS e-Referral Service
The NHS e-Referral Service replaced Choose and Book. General Information Information for patients, including booking, is available at: http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/appointment-booking/Pages/about-the-referral-system.aspx More information National support is available from NHS Digital at:...
NHS.UK - Responding to Negative Feedback
Negative comments posted on the NHS.UK website. . . GPC has been made aware that there is some confusion concerning the procedures in place when a practice receives notification of negative comments posted on the NHS.UK website. To clarify. . . Practices are notified of a comment pertaining...
Notification of Practice Changes
Please can practices keep us informed if there are any changes to your practice workforce, in particular to your GPs, Nurses, other health care professionals and Practice Managers as we are no longer receiving updates from the PCSE. Also, please update us if your practice has merged or you are...
Out of Area Registrations and In Hours Urgent Primary Medical Services (Enhanced Service)
Choice of GP Practice NHS England released guidance on the new out of area patient registration (choice of GP practice) arrangements in November 2014, click here to access this. What does this actually mean? Within the guidance was issued it identified 2 elements to this scheme which...
Parental Responsibility, Access to Children’s Medical Records and Parental Disputes.
Basic principles Parental responsibility refers to the rights, duties, powers and responsibilities that most parents have in respect of their children. Parental responsibility includes the right of parents to consent to treatment on behalf of their children, provided the treatment is in the...
Partners - Retiring and New
Retiring Partners Checklist We are often asked who needs to be notified when a Partner retires from the Practice, so we have put together some useful information below. The Adam Practice, has very kindly shared this comprehensive check list for retiring partners for you to download (which we...
Partnerships
Wessex LMCs strongly recommend that all practices have a current partnership agreement. As to terminology, although there are technical differences between an agreement and a deed for the purposes of these guidelines, the terms 'partnership agreement', 'partnership deed' and 'practice...
Patient Demographic Services (PDS)
Please refer to the following document for Guidance: Patient Demographic Services, Nov 2008
Patient Participation Groups
The Patient Participation DES ended on 31st March 2015. The DES was replaced by a contractual requirement for all practices to have in place and maintain a Patent Participation Group, comprising of members from its registered population. The PPG should: gather the news of patients about the...
Pensions
NHS Pensions Employer Contributions - Transitional Arrangements The NHS Pension Scheme employer contribution rate increased on the 1 April 2019 from 14.3% to 20.6% plus the employer levy of 0.08%. The Department of Health and Social Care's consultation response announcing the rise, published...
Performers List
The National Performers List website can be accessed at: http://www.performer.england.nhs.uk/. These website provides information about the National Performers Lists. There are three national lists for Medical, Dental and Ophthalmic performers. The lists provide an extra layer of reassurance...
PM Key Websites
LMC Law - Book of updates The LMC Law Book of Updates provides you with advice and template documents to support you in your organisations in terms of current thinking around PCNs, GDPR, and partnerships. Things change rapidly in the NHS so we will provide updates when we become aware of new...
Practice Manager Coaching & Mentoring
Our Practice Manager Supporters are now trained up to be coaches and mentors for our Wessex practice managers. To find out more about how this can help you, have a quick look at this short video Don't worry about the difference between coaching and mentoring - the PM Supporter will use...
Practice Manager Peer Appraisals
Wessex LMCs has recognised the value of Practice/Business Managers to General Practices within Wessex and has supported an initiative to develop a system of appraisal for them. The Practice Managers' Supporters Scheme and the linked Appraisal Scheme have been based, with kind permission, on the...
Practice Manager Supporter - Alex Kimber
Practice Manager Supporter - Alex Kimber Hello, I'm Alex Kimber and I have been a practice manager in Sherborne, Dorset since 2010 and a Managing Partner since 2017. Over the past decade I've seen and experienced a lot of change within primary care. In recent years, as well as managing the...
Practice Manager Supporters
Wessex LMCs is delighted to offer support to Practice Managers through our Practice Manager Supporters who are based throughout Wessex. Practice Manager Supporters provide ad hoc advice and support to their practice manager colleagues, and offer learning opportunities to support Continuous...
Practice Manager Updates - Audio & Video Podcasts and Recorded Webinars
An opportunity for PMs to hear the latest guidance for practices from the team at Wessex LMCs 'Great LMC update last week - listened to last night - your support to us PMs is amazing' You can record your reflections on this form or via your learning diary here:...
Premises
Independent contractors operating under a specific set of regulations provide most NHS primary care. Working with them on premises developments can be complex because they are responsible for securing suitable premises from which they deliver primary healthcare for the local population....
Primary Care Funding - 2020/2021
We have been asked by one of our committees to collate details of the various funds available to general practice in 2020/21. With this in mind we have created a spreadsheet that can be downloaded here. It contains an overview of the funding, how it can be accessed and links to the relevant...
Primary Care Support England (PCSE)
Escalations We are still receiving numerous queries from practices regarding issues and concerns with PCSE, however, PCSE restructuring in March 2020 led to our Engagement Officer being removed so we no longer have any direct liaison. We completely understand your frustration and your concerns...
Recording in Practice - Telephone Conversations and Patients Recording in Practice
Recording Telephone Convesations The principles to consider if you are thinking of recording telephone calls within your practice: You must not single out conversations with individual callers - i.e. you can't just record conversations with 'difficult' patients, if you are going to record then...
Removing Patients from Practice Lists
Most removals from the GP list are for administrative reasons e.g. the patient has left the practice area or has died. You can, however, also remove patients from your list if there is an irrevocable breakdown in the doctor-patient relationship or violence. When considering an irrevocable...
Safeguarding: Children and Storing Information
There is no clear-cut guidance on storing information from third parties e.g. Case Conference reports or MARAC information. The GMC in, Protecting children and young people - GMC (gmc-uk.org) , states the following: 'You should store information or records from other organisations, such as...
Sharing Challenges & Finding Solutions - Audio & Video Podcasts and Recorded Webinars
You can record your reflections on this form or via your learning diary here: https://www.fourteenfish.com/about/learningdiary CQC are particularly keen to see any evidence of your listening and how you apply it. Anxiety and depression: why doctors are prescribing gardening rather than...
Skill Mix Matrix
The terms 'working at scale' and 'new models of care' have been freely talked about, discussed and form a large part of the General Practice Forward View. There are workforce tools available that practices can access to make comparisons around which members of the team could provide which...
Sudden Death on Practice Premises
Beyond the immediate clinical need of a patient - if a patient is declared dead on the premises how should you proceed? If the death is sudden and unexpected you will need to contact the coroner via the police. The police will arrange for transport of the body from your site - the coroner may...
Summary Care Record (SCR)
What is Summary Care Record NHS Digital has information here Summary Care Record The SCR is intended to support patient care in urgent and emergency care settings. The SCR stores a defined set of key patient data for every patient in England, except those who elect not to have one. This data...
The Future of General Practice
You may remember that just under a year ago, Wessex LMCs highlighted a review of General Practice that was being undertaken by the Health and Social Care Parliamentary Committee: 'The Future of General Practice'. This review has been chaired by the Rt Honourable Jeremy Hunt MP (before he...
The Future of Primary Care, Ongoing Support For The Management Of The Practice & Innovations
General Practice Forward View Please see this section of our website https://www.wessexlmcs.com/gpfvstps General Practice Improvement Leaders Programme (GPIL) The new weblink is this one https://www.england.nhs.uk/gp/gpfv/redesign/gpdp/capability/ The dates of the next cohorts of GPIL are...
Third Party Training & Events - Practice Managers & Team Leaders
The following links may be of interest for Practice Managers Please do not contact Wessex LMCs about these events & programmes. These are being advertised here for your information. Please follow the blue links for information and contact details. Basic Sign Language A new initiative to...
Update to GP Contract 20/21 - 23/24
NHS England GP Contract Documents 2021/22 Contract End of year Checklist 21/22 - Once again, we have experienced a very unusual year with many contract changes, variations and activities stood up and down which all makes year end very tricky. Please see our checklist to help with this, we are...
Vaccines and Immunisations - Guidance for Practices
Page Contents Vaccinations and Immunisation Programme Vaccs & Imms Indicators in QOF GP Collections Timetable Immunisation Schedules Public Health Contacts for Imms and Screening SCID, BCG and Rotavirus Patient Group Directions HPV Vaccination Guidance for Healthcare...
What is MAPPA?
Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements This is the name for the 'responsible authorities' in an area tasked with the management of registered sex offenders, violent and other types of sexual offenders, and offenders who pose a serious risk of harm to the public. The 'responsible...
Workforce Management
Appraisals Appraisal info with downloadable forms are here https://www.wessexlmcs.com/appraisalformsforstaff Communication - consider use of Newsletters Notice boards Emails Social media https://www.wessexlmcs.com/socialmedia Insurance If roles are changed for the nursing team, tell your...
“How to” Modules for GPs, Senior Leaders & Partners in General Practice - Recorded Webinars
You can record your reflections on this form or via your learning diary here: https://www.fourteenfish.com/about/learningdiary CQC are particularly keen to see any evidence of your learning and how you apply it. Our 'How to...' modules are short 2 hour sessions, aimed at decision makers and...
