Following our concerns about the impact on practices of implementing safeguarding training guidelines, NHS England has confirmed that it does not set the training requirements for practice staff. Under GP contract arrangements contractors must ensure their staff are adequately trained to a level that keeps them and the public safe. We have updated our practice training resource to reflect CQC and NHS England expectations. |
The Government has reissued its consultation on introducing flexibilities to the NHS pension scheme. We believe it’s too little too late – we need its commitment to reform pension taxation, in time for the next tax year. The BMA is clear that this is not a long-term solution to the problems facing doctors. The long-term solution is to address the serious issues caused by tapering and the annual allowance. In addition, for many GPs, the problems caused by annualisation of pension contributions must be dealt with. This is your chance to raise your concerns and we would encourage you to respond using our template > |
NHS England has published new guidance for practices to ensure that learning disability registers are comprehensive and up to date, and vulnerable patients are given the opportunity to receive flu vaccinations and annual health checks. We encourage practices to use this guidance to regularly review their learning disability registers. However we have raised concerns with NHS England about the significant amount of time it will take to manually update registers to include all of the conditions listed. We are pressing NHS England and NHS Digital to commission an automated system as soon as possible. Meanwhile, where diagnosis of a learning disability is unclear, GPs should refer for a specialist assessment. |
Transfer of clinical pharmacists to the PCN DES
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NHS England has extended the deadline for clinical pharmacists employed under the clinical pharmacist in general practice scheme to transfer to work under PCN DES until 30 November 2019. This is to allow people more time to finalise the arrangements where a transition has been or was in the process of being agreed. After this date any clinical pharmacists who have not transitioned to work as part of the PCN workforce delivering the duties outlined in the network contract DES will no longer be eligible to do so, and will be counted in the PCN staff baseline. |
The Care Quality Commission has published its annual assessment of the state of health and social care in England which shows that quality ratings in general practice remain high.
The report focuses on the difficulties some patients have in accessing services across the NHS; a sign of the systemic pressures general practice, community and hospital services are under as a result of historic underinvestment. It also highlights that, despite the huge pressures general practice faces, 95% of practices are rated good or outstanding, which is far better than other services the CQC inspects. This is undoubtedly due to the hard work and commitment of practices across the country. |
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