From 1 April 2022 this website will not be updated.

  For the latest North West London health and care information, visit www.nwlondonics.nhs.uk.

Read more...

2 July 2020

Dear colleague

Please find below the latest GP update regarding Covid-19.

You can view the North West London password-protected GP extranet homepage using the details below.

As always, you are advised to review the full list of Covid-19-related service changes on a regular basis, to ensure you have not missed any notices.

Website: https://www.nwlondonccg.nhs.uk/professionals/coronavirus-clinical
Password: NWLCovid-19
 
Today’s update includes:

  • MESSAGE FROM NHSEI: Healthcare associated Covid-19 infections – further action
  • MESSAGE FROM PUBLIC HEALTH ENGLAND: Clinical guidance for healthcare professionals on maintaining immunisation programmes during Covid-19 
  • Updated: Paediatric Telephone Advice and Guidance (A&G) for GPs and Primary Care 
  • Master Directory of Advice and Guidance Services
  • SURVEY: IT training courses

 
MESSAGE FROM NHSEI: Healthcare associated Covid-19 infections – further action

ACTION: Read in full instructions from NHSEI

Further to the letter dated 9 June, we want to thank you all for your continued efforts to reduce healthcare associated Covid-19 infections in your organisations.

Evidence has now shown that people infected with Covid-19 who are either pre-symptomatic (1) or have very mild or no respiratory symptoms (asymptomatic) (2) can transmit the virus to others without knowing so it is important that we take even greater steps to stop the spread of coronavirus in healthcare settings. Read the message in full via the link above.


MESSAGE FROM PUBLIC HEALTH ENGLAND: Clinical guidance for healthcare professionals on maintaining immunisation programmes during Covid-19 

ACTION: Read the guidance in full

The guidance in the link above is supported by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH).
 
The general principles include:

  • The national immunisation programme is highly successful in reducing the incidence of serious and sometimes life-threatening diseases such as pneumococcal and meningococcal infections, whooping cough, diphtheria and measles.
  • It remains important to maintain the best possible vaccine uptake to prevent a resurgence of these infections.
  • Where possible, the routine immunisation programmes should be maintained and offered in a timely manner.
  • Most vaccine preventable diseases are spread from person to person and so it is likely that social distancing to prevent Covid-19 will also reduce but not abolish the risk of some vaccine preventable diseases. Other factors, such as reduced travel overseas, may also reduce the overall risk.
  • However, many vaccine preventable diseases are more infectious than Covid-19 – for example measles is around six times more infectious – and so vaccination is the only reliable way to avoid infection.
  • In addition, for some vaccine preventable diseases, people can carry the organism for months or even years. Infections such as meningococcal, haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), and pneumococcal infection are therefore most commonly acquired from other people in your own household.
  • Timely vaccination is therefore still an important way of keeping people safe.

 
Updated: Paediatric Telephone Advice and Guidance (A&G) for GPs and Primary Care 

ACTION: View the updated document here

The Paediatric Telephone A&G document has been updated. 

The changes are:

  • St Mary’s opening hours are now 8:30-5:30
  • Telephone number for NW London-wide CNWL CAMHS mental health assessment suite is now 020 8869 2273.

 
Master Directory of Advice and Guidance Services

ACTION: Click here to download full resource

As you will be aware, there have been changes made to the Directory of Advice and Guidance Services. Please ensure you are referencing the most up to date information which is available via the link above.

 
SURVEY: IT training courses

ACTION: Complete the short survey here

We are sending out a short survey to all practice staff in order to obtain your thoughts on our existing training courses and to develop possible new ways of training including new content for courses you would like to see in the future.

We will be using your feedback to enable us to improve on the quality of the courses we currently offer and to be able to offer more tailored courses that will be useful to practice staff moving forward.

This short survey is open for completion until Friday 31 July and will take just a couple of minutes to complete. We would really appreciate your feedback and once we have received all the surveys, we will look at the results and put together some actions and a plan to implement your suggestions, which we will then share with you.

Please use this link and paste it into your browser in order to complete the survey: NW London IT Training Survey.