October 2024
A Note From the Chair - Dr Ian Lalsingh
Dear Colleagues,
I hope you are all keeping well. Autumn is here, and on 7th November, the Northern Trust will switch to Encompass/Epic. If you did not attend the training on 16th October, it will be available on the Northern Federation Support Unit website, which also has the facility to report Encompass issues to the Northern Trust at Northern Federation Support Unit - Encompass. I am sure you will find it useful.
My Care is an internet-based portal that allows users to access a health summary. It does indeed pose an issue for us in primary care, given that patients will have access to test results that were not ordered in primary care. This comes under the Working Together Better Consensus & Guidance on the Primary and Secondary Care Interface document, which was issued along with the Northern Ireland Contract Assurance Framework (NICAF) documentation earlier this year.
Regarding NICAF, indemnity, and practices’ financial position, NIGPC is in negotiations with the Department/SPPG. It was reported from the NI Assembly Health Committee meeting on 17th October that the Minister for Health wants a quick solution to the indemnity issue, and a proposal for a long-term solution is forthcoming.
Thank you to all who took part in our MDT Q&A event in September; I hope you found it informative. It will be interesting to see if there are any announcements by the end of the year regarding transformation funds.
I plan to be at the NI LMC conference in November and look forward to the ensuing debate on how the membership will direct our leadership for the forthcoming year. I hope to see you there!
Thanks to all of you for your ongoing hard work.
Federation Education
Dr Richard McClean, Dr Aine McNeill, Shauna McKinley & Janice Russell -
Federation Education Team
After the summer, there are a number of FedED CPD opportunities in the months leading up to Christmas.
The September PBL was our yearly “Hot Topics” update, and a lot of ground was covered in the busy afternoon session. The feedback received was very positive, with several notable learning points highlighted, including updated guidance on managing hypertension and increased confidence in the assessment and management of B12 deficiency in primary care. The associated manual is a useful resource to revisit the topics covered, as it can often feel like a whistle-stop tour during the session itself.
In October, we have our first FedED small group education session of the 2024/25 period. It will be hosted by Inver Surgery in Larne on October 30th, starting at 1:30 PM for lunch, with the session running from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM.
Dr. Ita McGowan will be covering “The Assessment of Vertigo in Primary Care.” If you are keen to attend, please drop me an email at r.mcclean@doctors.org.uk.
Our next FedED PBL session is at 2:00 PM on 27th November. Our clinical sessions will be related to ENT and Neurology. Dr. Barry Kerr will speak on common ENT problems encountered in primary care, and Dr. Martin Harley will discuss the management of headaches, including the newer therapeutic options available. A full agenda along with the Zoom link will be sent to practices in the near future.
Lastly, I’d like to express my gratitude to those who have supported the FedED events in recent years. We’ve been hosted by Templepatrick Surgery, Whitehouse Medical Practice, Victoria Surgery, Notting Hill Medical Practice, and Meadowbridge Surgery. It’s been great to draw upon the significant knowledge and talents of the GPs and trainees in our federation, and the feedback we’ve received to date has been overwhelmingly positive.
I’d be keen to hear from any GP training practices interested in hosting one of our three small group education sessions in January, April, or July of 2025. I have a list of topics suggested at previous meetings and can arrange lunch, so if you’re open to facilitating one of the sessions, please drop me an email.
Please find below some details of training to date.
📆September - Admin
Interpreting online Booking System
Part 2 - Advanced Excel Training
📆November
Awaiting confirmation from MDU re GDPR Update (held locally) for Managers and Senior reception staff
Also
Network & Learning NI held a very successful conference in September with over 90 attendees.
Topics covered included
Understanding Practice Finance under the new NICAF
Health & Safety
IT
Labour Relations Agency
Ombudsman
Nicola Smyth and Karen Foreman - Lead General Practice Pharmacists
GPP Achievements
Congratulations to our GPPs who have worked hard to successfully complete the following courses:
FP1 Aoife Marley and Amy Best
FP2 Gemma McDyre
Independent Prescribing Ansu Babu, Michael Ervine and Colm Kerr
Congratulations to Scott Hampson for being chosen to present his project on Pharmacist-Led Greener Asthma Reviews, carried out in Castle Practice, at the NI Recognising Achievement Awards in September 2024.
GPP Induction
As the GPP role and practice workload have developed significantly since the implementation of GP Federations, the expectation of pharmacists new to post has increased. This has led to the need to rethink our induction process so that new staff are better prepared when they start working in their allocated practice. Lead GPPs in the Northern Area have recently finalised the new induction process alongside HR staff at NFSU. This will be tailored to the individual but has been trialled by 2 of our most recent new starts in East Antrim with positive feedback. Hopefully this will ease pressure on the new pharmacist, GPP colleagues and practice staff. As you are aware induction is just the start of the educational and development process for pharmacists in general practice. Thank you to all practice staff for your ongoing support of our GPP team.
Lead GPPs from the Northern area have met with senior Trust pharmacy staff to communicate medication issues to date reported back from our GPP teams relating to Encompass. This includes medication errors on discharge and lack of indications on eTANs. The Northern Trust pharmacy team have taken a proactive approach to trying to resolve some of the concerns ahead of the Northern Trust going live. A follow up meeting will take place after implementation of Encompass. We will continue to gather feedback on specific issues from our team.
Diabetes In-Step project - update
Eleven practices have expressed an interest in taking part in the non-promotional joint working Diabetes In-Step Project.
With the In-Step project, the Screen Clinical team will work with existing practice staff and processes by:
Embedding clinical guidelines to optimise patient pathways and treatment
Upskilling practices to risk stratify using excel, dashboards or GPIP
Upskilling staff (GPP and/or practice nurse) to conduct chronic disease clinics
Support practices to implement templates and patient consultation forms
Reduce the burden of practice consultation times by having robust workstreams in place
Provide additional T2DM clinic support if required
Support GPP strategy NI to 2030
The Lead GPPs, are currently project planning with AZ and Screen Clinical, aiming to have funding in place to start implementation in January 2025. They will be in contact with interested practices in due course.
Quality Improvement Support
Dr Frew Johnston - QI Facilitator
The Northern Federations are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Frew Johnston as our Quality Improvement (QI) Facilitator. Dr. Johnston is dedicated to supporting practices in their continuous journey to improve quality of care and service delivery. If your practice is currently working on a QI project or is considering initiating one, Dr. Johnston is available to provide valuable insights and guidance.
Whether you need assistance with measuring progress, refining your project’s focus, or exploring innovative strategies to achieve your goals, Dr. Johnston offers tailored support to meet your practice’s specific needs. Reach out to him for expert advice to help ensure your projects create meaningful, lasting impact.
For support or more information, please contact Dr. Frew Johnston at frew.johnston@northernfsu.co.uk
NFSU HR
Cathy Christie - HR Officer
Carol Shaw - HR Administrator
In support of the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning for Macmillan Cancer, NFSU raised £135. 💚🎂🧁
A podiatry webinar with Suzanne Hamilton is available to view on our website at https://www.northernfsu.co.uk/health-wellbeing.
On Thursday, 10th October 2024, we hosted the “Pause for Conversations” webinar with Catherine Murnin from The Wellbeing Project. Although the session was not recorded, we have shared the resources from the webinar in the Health & Wellbeing section of the NFSU website.
🤶❄️🎄
This Christmas, we will be supporting Women’s Aid with several activities:
Online Safe Place Course on 28th November 2024. This 90-minute training is open to all, and further information will be shared with practice managers and federation staff.
Christmas Coffee Morning on Friday, 12th December 2024, held on Christmas Jumper Day to raise funds for Women’s Aid. We encourage practices to host their own coffee mornings, and a donation link will be set up closer to the time.
Collection for a Local Refuge Shelter: We’ll be collecting items to donate to a refuge shelter in Ballymena. A list of items will be shared in early to mid-November. If anyone would like to contribute, please deliver items to NFSU before 12 noon on Wednesday, 18th December 2024.
Additionally, we’re excited to announce that NFSU will have a team participating in the 2025 Marathon Relay! It’s a wonderful opportunity to support each other, promote wellbeing, and represent our Federation in the community.
Northern GP Federation Support Unit (NFSU)
If you have any questions, feedback or suggestions for Antrim Ballymena GP Federation please contact NFSU on info@northernfsu.co.uk.
Naomi Hutchinson and Rachael Elliott - Project Coordinators
Staff Update within Projects
Naomi has returned to her role of Project Coordinator after being off on maternity leave. She had a baby girl called Mya last September and all is going well with them. Rachael was covering Naomi’s work whilst she was off, and we are delighted to confirm that Rachael will also remain a Project Coordinator within NFSU. This is good news as both Naomi and Rachael can be involved in project work and undertake additional projects.
Please feel to contact either Naomi or Rachael at:
NRC Course Update 2024/2025 / Possibility of an In-House Training Programme
Following the completion of “Level 2 Diploma in Primary Care Medical Administration” during 23/24 with NRC in East Antrim Federation, it was planned to continue offering this course to students within East Antrim Federation and Causeway Federation. Due to some concerns, we have “paused” this with NRC and hope to revisit this initiative in the near future. NRC are to get back to us. In the interim, we are currently exploring the possibility of an in-house admin training program at NFSU which we would envisage to cover similar content to the admin course, ensuring the content is tailored to our practices’ requirements. We are currently researching this option and will be in correspondence with all Practice Managers with further details once we have a comprehensive proposal. This in-house training programme would be open to those interested from all 4 Federation areas (depending on those potential students interested and if they met the eligibility criteria).
Economies of Scale Cost Savings - Webinar
We are well underway with this project, and you already will be benefiting from some of the discounts. To continue the momentum with these cost savings we have organised a lunchtime webinar for Tuesday 5 November at 1pm.
During this webinar we want to provide you with a more in-depth update on our research to date and we will require additional information from each of you to ensure we best align our research / findings for the benefit of Practices’. Naomi will be discussing Ink/Toner/Drums, Shredding, General Office Supplies, Oil & Electricity. Rachael will be discussing Paper, Calibration, Fire Safety Pat testing, electric wire / emergency lights. Even though some of the Practices are Trust owned, there may be aspects which will be relevant. Therefore, we would encourage each of you to try and attend.
To date, the below are 2 of the areas Rachael has negotiated cost savings:
Ebrington/Clinical Supplies
The Ebrington clinical supplies scheme, which began on August 1, 2024, has seen 58 out of 68 practices sign up to receive additional discounts and special pricing from Ebrington, averaging approximately 12% per product. Each practice received a pack delivered to their location and an email notification. Following this, the Western Federation has also joined the scheme. We hope that as the scheme progresses, we can collaborate regionally to achieve further cost savings. If you haven’t signed up to this yet, please contact Rachael.elliott@northernfsu.co.uk - Over the past two months, 30 of the 58 participating members have collectively saved £595.23 through discounts, which is a fantastic result.
Stericycle – Clinical Waste
We have achieved significant cost savings with Stericycle by leveraging economies of scale. Several practices have joined Stericycle regionally, and more plan to join in 2025 when their current contracts expire. Once these practices are fully onboarded, we will assess the total cost savings achieved. Currently, we are on tier 3 of pricing, resulting in a 14% savings for each practice compared to joining Stericycle individually. If you interested in joining please contact Smyth, Susan ssmyth@STERICYCLE.com
AccuRx
We continue to support and hold the regional contract for AccuRx for cost savings. In the North alone there is 37 Emis Practices signed up and all finding AccuRx very useful in Practice. We have held 4 training sessions for staff this year with another survey out to create bespoke training for practices on anything they specifically want training on. Once we get the results we will arrange training for the practices. We continue to be the main point of contact for practice and direct finance queries to AccuRx. https://forms.office.com/e/YYB46wPAWM
Defibrillators
Thank you to all those who responded to the survey Naomi emailed out at the end of September with regards to defibrillators. This information has been collated, some of the findings have been shared with the potential supplier and we are awaiting further information from them. We hope we will be back in contact with all those interested within the next couple of weeks.
Practice Index Learning - For all Clinical & admin staff
We would like to remind you that your Federation has purchased a Practice Index Learning package licence for your Practice, which is valid until January 2026. Please ensure you are making the most of this resource. Each Practice Manager has a login, and the Practice Manager can enroll all staff in various courses. There are hundreds of statutory and mandatory courses available for all clinical staff, Practice Managers, Receptionists, and administrative staff. Login - Practice Index HUB The Learning package account is registered on the PMs email if you are having trouble accessing please let me know.
“Please register for a practice account by clicking here
Please note - you may get a message to say that your email address is already in use, or your practice code is already in use. Just ignore these messages and continue with your registration. You and your staff will then have access to our eLearning, Facilitated Learning and Virtual Learning courses. Once you have registered you will be able to login here and see all of the courses available to you.
If you need training on this please join Practice Index every Tuesday at 2pm – register here. Select a Date & Time - Calendly
We can see from our records there are several practices who are currently not using Practice Index. Whilst the use of Practice Index is optional for individual Practices, we may contact those who do not appear to have been utilising it to potentially remove their Practice from the contract to help with cost savings. Please note we would be contact with you individually (if applicable) to discuss this closer to when the contract is expiring.
“Skill Up” Initiative Still Opened to Applications (Free Training)
At the start of September Naomi emailed information to all practices regarding “Skill Up”. Please note that many of these courses at still opened for applications. Further information can be found at: https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/skillup
NI Health Ministers Visit – Highlighting the Work of MDTs within General Practice
Mr Mike Nesbitt has kindly accepted an invitation to visit Ballymoney Family Practice next month. This is an event to highlight the work our MDTs carry out within the Causeway Federation. We want to continue emphasising the importance of MDTs by demonstrating the impact of having MDTs can have on our patient population. Keep an eye on our socials and we will share how the event goes in our next newsletter.
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 02896208333
Follow the Federation on:
Comments