No images? Click here 2 February 2023 Dear colleagues, Today is Time to Talk Day, a national day devoted to talking about mental health. It’s important to reach out and to talk to someone if you feel overwhelmed and are struggling. Please take a look and download the resource pack from the Time to Talk website, which includes posters, postcards, social media graphics and more to help start conversations in your workspaces. There is a range of mental health support from NHS England, including our Looking After You coaching service - confidential support which has helped over 9,000 people. A new virtual team away day is also available to support up to eight people in a team. The Practitioner Health Mental Wellbeing App is for any member of the primary care team, helping over 800 people who have registered for the app using the access code PC2022. The app is a personalised mental wellbeing tool, creating a wellbeing plan based on individual scores and customised content based on your identified needs and directing you to tools, resources, and routes to support. Ursula and Kiren Dr Ursula Montgomery Dr Kiren Collison Primary care NHS publishes delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care servicesA blueprint to help recover urgent and emergency care services has been published, which set out how patients will receive an enhanced NHS 111 offer including increased access to specialist paediatric advice for children and direct access to urgent mental health support. This will see some children referred directly to a same-day appointment with a specialist rather than attending A&E, avoiding hundreds of unnecessary hospital admissions. Final snapshot wellbeing survey of the primary care workforce Staff working in primary care are invited to complete a short wellbeing survey by the end of February. This is the sixth and final in a series of surveys, asking respondents to reflect on their personal wellbeing as well as the functioning of their team and their role. Please do share with all team members – a wide and varied dataset will enable NHS England to continue to develop wellbeing interventions and support for the primary care workforce. New personalised care workforce development frameworks NHS England has published the workforce development frameworks for health and wellbeing coaches and care coordinators. The frameworks provide guidance for people employed in these roles and those employing them helping to increase understanding of where they can have most impact in supporting and empowering people to improve their health and wellbeing. They also set professional standards and competencies, give guidance on supervision, training, and continuous professional development. This now completes the suite of three frameworks following the publication of the workforce development framework for social prescribing link workers last month. You can access the frameworks and more information about these roles on the NHS England website. Primary Care Improvers Conference - registration opens Registration has now opened for NHS England’s seventh annual Primary Care Improvers Conference being held on 7 June 2023. This virtual conference will give attendees the opportunity to share and learn with like-minded people, who are working to improve primary care for patients and teams. During the day, there will be sessions on what’s working well around the country and opportunities to share ideas, make connections, recharge improvement batteries and leave inspired on how to innovatively overcome challenges that primary care teams may be facing. New Improving Productivity Digital Playbooks The new Improving Productivity digital playbooks, including the Workforce playbook and the Open source playbook are now live. These playbooks collate real-world evidence showing how digital technologies have addressed key challenges across the NHS and social care, building confidence and highlighting the opportunity for technology to improve productivity systemwide. General practice Funding offer for Trainee Nurse Associate (TNA) places in general practice Health Education England is offering additional funded places for TNAs in General Practice starting in May 2023 with BPP University. This Primary Care apprenticeship programme is fully supported with funding:
In addition, TNAs spending 50% or more of their time working with people who have a learning disability and/or autistic people will be eligible for additional funding – totalling £7,900 per apprentice. To apply, contact nationalnursingandmidwiferyteam@hee.nhs.uk by Monday 27 February 2023. Community pharmacy New Medicines Service (NMS) – antidepressant pilot extension In May 2022, a pilot started to test the inclusion of people newly prescribed antidepressants for depression in the NMS. The model of care includes an engagement, intervention, follow up and additional follow up stage with a community pharmacist and encourages signposting, collaborative working, and the development of peer support networks around depression and mental health. Subject to positive evaluation of the ongoing pilot, the NMS will expand to include antidepressants to enable patients who are newly prescribed an antidepressant to receive extra support from their community pharmacist later in 2023. Further details, including a revised start date for the service, will be published when the evaluation has completed. Optometry National Patient Safety Alert: EyeCee One preloaded and EyeCee One Crystal preloaded Intraocular Lenses On 1 February, the MHRA issued a patient safety alert in respect of EyeCee One preloaded and EyeCee One Crystal preloaded intraocular lenses, following the device safety information notification (DSI/2023/001) issued on 26 January 2023. More information is available in this letter. Events, webinars and training 7 February, 1pm – 2pm. SPS: Medicines optimisation in schools 9 February, 3pm – 4pm. Ambulance (999) and Urgent Community Response Webinar Series - Part 1, Digital Opportunities 14 – 28 February. The Tech Innovation Framework Expo 2023 Primary care organisations and those responsible for GP core clinical system procurement are invited to attend TIF Expo 2023. The event will take place virtually over a 2-week period from 14 - 28 February. The eight Tech Innovation Framework suppliers will showcase the work they’re doing to develop new intuitive and cloud-based core clinical systems. 21 February, 12pm – 1pm. Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) hubs - Communities of Practice 22 February, 8 March and 22 March 2023, 9.30am – 12pm. Polypharmacy Action Learning Set The AHSN polypharmacy programme invites you to join Action Learning Sets (ALS) to help build GP and prescribing health care professionals’ confidence in, and understanding of, the complex issues surrounding stopping inappropriate medicines safely. 22 February, 12pm – 1pm. Equally Well: Physical health checks for people living with severe mental illness in primary care 22 February, 3pm – 4pm. New statutory guidance on working with people and communities 2 March 1pm – 2.30pm. Primary Care Review: What should be included in the Learning Disability Annual Health Check? Resources Missed a recent webinar? You can view some recordings below: Download our patient-facing materials: |