Causeway GP Federation Quarterly Newsletter - Spring 2026
- Northern Federation Support Unit
- 7 days ago
- 8 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
A note from the Chair - Dr Johnny Burns
Colleagues,
I hope this finds you well.
We are currently involved in development of Neighbourhood model programme. Federations will be central to some aspects of this . There is currently work on developing Integrated Neighbourhood Teams which will align with 17 Federations . We remain clear that our involvement is with oversight of NIGPC and that our continued involvement is reliant on significant investment into Core General Practice Funding .
I believe that there will be significant opportunities for Practices and Federations to delivered better care closer to home for our patients but only if there is stable General Practice and we have capacity . This will also be reliant on clear budget for any new work .
The details are limited at present but the focus is on Elderly care in Year 1 .
As such I will be sending out some questionnaires to PMs shortly to try and plan / design some potential pilots which may be helpful . I would appreciate your co-operation.
Our normal Business of course continues and I am very appreciative of ongoing support of yourselves, the NFSU team and our various speciality Leads
Happy to discuss of course if anyone has any questions.
Best regards,
Johnny
MDT - Physiotherapy
Suzanne Kennedy - Consultant Physiotherapist
👋🏻Retirement
A big thankyou and a final farewell to Hazel McMahon who retired on 31st March 2026.
Hazel has been part of our First Contact Physiotherapy team since the start in January 2020 in Mountsandel Practice.
She has dedicated over 36 years to the NHS and we will miss her wealth of knowledge and experience but wish her a very happy and healthy retirement.
💫Success - What a team!
All First Contact Physiotherapists in Causeway Federation have successfully completed their advanced practice training and currently all are non-medical prescribers, can inject and request diagnostics.
This is a fantastic achievement and it is great to have such a skilled and motivated team in Causeway.
🏅Awards
Congratulations to the Causeway First Contact Physiotherapy Team who were nominated and were finalists in the Chairs Awards for Population and Health Wellbeing Award. A great celebration night was held in the Leighinmohr House Hotel in Ballymena in March 2026.
💊🆕New Project !
Following the successful PBL session by Arthritis UK our MDT along with our pharmacy colleagues are planning to develop a chronic pain opioid reduction project to pilot within a practice.
🙆🏻♀️Thai Chi Programme
A collaborative Tai Chi programme delivered by Deirdre Diamond Social Worker and Stephen Haslam First Contact Physiotherapist at Portrush Medical Centre helped older adults improve balance, reduce pain, and enhance social wellbeing.
Read More !
This was planned and developed as an MDT primary care preventative initiative for older adults in the Portrush area, and had with two pronged approach:
To help maintain and improve mobility balance and prevent falls. It is estimated that 1 in 3 people over the age of 65 and 1 in 2 over the age of 80 fall every year, which can have a significant detrimental impact on their wellbeing.
To improve social interaction, combat loneliness and support for older patients to build connections with others.
The 12 week programme was very successful with pre and post questionnaires evidencing that participants felt there was an improvement in their social health and well-being after completion. Self-reported pain scores also improved with 80% of participants reporting an average reduction in pain. MDT FCP and Social Work will hopefully apply for and gain further funding for another roll out of the Tai Chi class in the near future, given the positive feedback and improvements, both physical and emotionally.
Northern GP Federation Support Unit Update (NFSU)
Keeping you up to date with our team.
Feel free to reach out to any of the NFSU team supporting the four Northern GP Federations (Antrim Ballymena, Causeway, East Antrim, and Mid Ulster).
➡️ Check our our NEW Bios to put faces to names and see who does what:
Got a question or want to know more about our work? Please get in touch. We have recently updated our bios following a couple of recent additions to our team.
NFSU Project Update
Rachael Elliott & Hannah Wilson - Project Coordinators
Medical Admin Academy
We are delighted to be continuing to deliver our Medical Admin Academy, supporting individuals to develop their skills, knowledge, and confidence required to work in administrative roles within GP practices.
Following the continued success of our Medical Administration Training Academy, we are pleased to share some positive outcomes from recent cohorts:
⭐ 87% completion rate
⭐ 90%+ of participants rated the training as excellent
⭐ 81% of completers progressed to receiving an offer of employment
We are continuing to monitor opportunities to deliver the academy within the Causeway area, and would very much welcome the opportunity to bring this programme locally in the future.
In the meantime, we would encourage practices to share any current or upcoming medical administration vacancies with us. We are happy to circulate these opportunities to participants from our previous cohorts, and to those progressing through future programmes, who may be willing and able to travel (***Sometimes participants live on bordering council areas).
Antrim & Newtownabbey LMP (See more)
Earlier this year, we delivered the academy in partnership with Antrim & Newtownabbey Labour Market Partnership (LMP). The programme ran over eight weeks and provided participants with training in key areas such as patient communication, terminology, confidentiality & GDPR, clinical systems, and the day-to-day operations of working within general practice.
The programme received strong interest from the local community, with 64 expressions of interest received. A total of 13 participants commenced the academy, with 11 successfully completing the programme, representing an 85% completion rate. Participant feedback was very positive, with 91% overall quality of training as excellent. Encouragingly, several participants have already secured employment within GP practices, with others actively progressing through recruitment processes.
Mid & East Antrim LMP (See more)
Furthermore, we are delighted to share that funding has been secured to run another Medical Admin Academy in partnership with Mid & East Antrim LMP, with the next cohort due to begin in May 2026 in Ballymena.
The upcoming academy will once again provide participants with practical training into working within general practice, alongside opportunities to engage with healthcare professionals and develop employability skills.
We would be grateful if you would kindly display the flyer in your practice.
➡️ Want to know more about our Medical Admin Academy? Watch the below video.
📖Federation Education
⭐Education Event - Wednesday 20th May 2026
We are pleased to confirm that the Causeway GP Federation Education Event will take place on Wednesday 20th May 2026 from 2pm-5:15pm at The Lodge Hotel, Coleraine.
This event will bring together clinicians and practice teams from across the Causeway locality for an afternoon of learning and professional development to primary care.
👉Register to attend:
See More - Room 1 - Clinical Session
· Menopause Update – Dr Jayne Creighton & Dr Sharon Porter
· MASLD Presentation & Q&A – Dr Edvard Volcek
· Cardiovascular-Kidney-Metabolic Care – Dr Eimear Darcy
See More - Room 2 - Admin Teams – Interpreting Services & BSL/ISL Equality Training (21 spaces)
· Business Services Organisation - Claire Hamilton
· British Deaf Association - Naomi Fujitani
See More - Room 2 - Open to all – CPR Training (12 spaces)
· Delivered by Bernie McKenna
· Please note that CPR training is limited to 12 spaces and should be prioritised for individuals who have not yet completed their annual renewal and require it urgently or missed their practice-based session. Unfortunately, we are not able to accommodate full practice teams at this stage.
Dalriada Urgent Care (DUC) – Protected Learning Time Dates
Protected Learning Time (PLT) for 2026/2027 has now been aligned to support forward planning of education events.
The dates where DUC is scheduled are:
· Wed 20th May 2026
· Wed 23rd September 2026
· Wed 18th November 2026
· Wed 24th February 2027
GPs will be contacted in advance to confirm availability for cover. Early confirmation of GP availability to ensure these education sessions can proceed as planned and to support effective planning across Federations.
See More for printable flyer >
🚑 Medical Cover Update - We need YOUR help!
The ongoing challenge around FedEd activity is the medical cover for practice closure. You will be aware that a training day in February was cancelled at short notice. Dalriada were unable to obtain any cover despite significant efforts.
We would like to secure four afternoons each year with Dalriada cover to permit practice closures for multi-disciplinary learning events, further external events such as Hot Topics, or to facilitate in-house training.
This will require medical cover for Dalriada. Closure is usually on a Trust-wide basis and can be run with 4 GPs alongside ancillary staff. We are looking at ways this can be secured so that training plans can be made with confidence. The Dalriada cover is a paid session.
We require 16 sessions to cover the year.
➡️ If you would be willing to commit to doing one Wednesday afternoon session in the year it would very helpful and enable our program to run.
📩 Please contact Hannah Wilson - hannah.wilson@northernfsu.co.uk If you can help!
General Practice Pharmacy Success!⭐
Two of our lead GPPs, Claire & Mary, pictured below attended a Leaders Forum in London last week to present their COPD cardiopulmonary risk reduction project and to learn from others sharing the latest developments in respiratory care. This trip was funded by Astra Zeneca who supported the Federations with this project.
❤️CPR Training / Financial Support
We are pleased to share some exciting news for all our GP practices. Your Federation will be providing some financial support for CPR Training for the next year. Further details regarding this will be circulated very shortly via email, so please keep an eye out for this communication. Thank you to those who responded to the Member Practice survey in January as this allowed us to gather our research in this area.
Economies of Scale Project
We continue to listen to feedback from Practices and work closely with local suppliers, strengthening our partnerships to support cost savings wherever possible.
Accurx Update
We recently contacted all Northern practices enrolled in the AccuRx Federation contract regarding upcoming renewals, due at the start of May 2026. Our Federation contract will generate almost £60k in savings for Northern Practices for 2026/2027 alone.
In the Northern area, over 85% EMIS practices are currently signed up and finding AccuRx extremely useful in their Practice. We are also mindful of the few remaining upcoming Vision to EMIS migrations. If your practice is considering joining AccuRx or if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to: Rachael.elliott@northernfsu.co.uk
Click Here for previous Webinar
Previous webinar held on 4th March 2026 can still be watched here – (products, package, pricing, upcoming developments) The session includes a Q& A and will be ideal for Practices who is/has migrated from Vison to Emis. Economies of Scale | Northern Federation
Click Here for Approx. Current Pricing (subject to change depending on patient list size)
Modules | AccuRx Pricing +Vat Per patient | Federation Pricing +Vat Per patient |
Bronze (Sms plus, Batch messaging and appointment reminders, florey questionnaires) | 43p | 24p |
Booking | 29p | 26p |
Patient Triage | 25p | 19p |
The Regional NI contract can save practices up to 44% on modules.
Take a look at the discounts available to you on our website through our supplier partnerships
CLICK HERE ➡️Economies of Scale | Northern Federation
Contact us
As always if you have any questions for the FSU, please do not hesitate to contact the Federation Support Unit on info@northernfsu.co.uk or 028 9620 8333
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