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...

29 May 2020

All documents can be found here

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:

  • Improving the supply of PPE to general practice in NW London
  • Antibody testing for primary care staff
  • Webinar: Covid-19 and risk assessments for BAME staff and other vulnerable groups
  • Volunteers needed for vaccine trial

 

Improving the supply of PPE to general practice in NW London

ACTION: Please return the completed template to nwlccg.lon-nw-pcc@nhs.net by 5pm on Wednesday 3 June 2020, and review the return with the CCG primary care lead before submission.

As announced in the NHS England Primary Care Bulletin a dedicated supply chain portal to meet the on-going demand for PPE products in general practice and small care homes is being rolled out nationally in stages.

We are waiting confirmation of the London go live date and in the interim and in recognition of the difficulties some practices have had with both availability and price paid for the PPE, we are trying to develop a system of bulk purchasing to support practices.

The recovery of primary care services over the next few months will result in increased face to face consultations and home visits compared to last few months. We therefore need to assess the level of clinical activity that will be undertaken at each practice going forward and the associated demand for the required PPE to operate safely.

As practices are completing their infection prevention readiness checklist at the moment, which includes assessing the PPE need, we would ask all practices to complete the attached template confirming the weekly demand for each PPE items.

Please note that the demand submitted will be assessed in line with the PHE guidance and it does not confirm the supply of PPE or any associated payment to practices at present.

Please return the completed template to email nwlccg.lon-nw-pcc@nhs.net by 5pm on Wednesday 3rd June 2020. Please also make sure that you have reviewed the return with the CCG primary care lead before submission.

If you have any queries, please contact your CCG primary care lead.

 

Antibody testing for primary care staff

NHS England and Improvement announced earlier this week that serology (antibody) testing is being rolled out across NHS staff and patients. These tests will start to be introduced in NHS North West London next week.

It has been made clear that the test will simply inform the recipient if he or she has had the virus and developed antibodies.  It will not give any information about immunity to the virus, and it will be important for staff who have developed antibodies to continue infection prevention and control measures including the use of PPE. Patients will need to continue adherence to existing social distancing guidance.

Therefore, the value of antibody tests is currently limited to answering the question of whether someone has had the virus or not, and providing data and a greater understanding on the spread of the virus.

Initially the local pathology laboratories have been allocated a limited number of tests per day to cover all NHS staff, care staff and patients. It is expected that this allocation will increase over the next few weeks. The process for testing will involve ordering the test on ICE and taking a blood sample, which should then be sent to the pathology laboratory in the normal way. 

Until we have access to more reagents, In NW London the initial total allocation for primary care and CCG staff and primary care patients is 25 per day. This means we will be unable to offer widespread testing at this stage.

Given the initial number of tests, we are intending to allocate the available daily tests to one CCG per day, on a rota basis.

 

Webinar: Covid-19 and risk assessments for BAME staff and other vulnerable groups

ACTION: View full event details (and supporting poster if useful)

Date: 2 June 2020 Time: 1pm Length: 45 minutes Location: Online using MS Teams

Join the webinar: http://bit.ly/NHSBAME (This event will take place using Microsoft Teams. Please click on link or paste into your browser)

This webinar was organised by the North West London NHS BAME Network.

What you will learn

  • Latest information on why BAME staff are more vulnerable
  • What happens during a risk assessment
  • What are the expectations on managers including confidentiality
  • What a good risk assessment looks like
  • What does occupational health do

There will also be an opportunity to ask questions via web-chat

Who should attend?

  • BAME staff
  • Managers
  • Other interested staff

 

Volunteers needed for vaccine trial

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust is looking for healthy volunteers to participate in a COVID-19 vaccine trial.  If you are aged 18 – 55 years old, in good health and think you might be interested, please visit the website for more information: https://covid19vaccinetrial.co.uk.