OCCG Weekly Bulletin
Wednesday 24 January 2018
Included in this bulletin:
  • Change in Coding of Faecal Occult Blood Testing Results
  • Monitored Dosage Systems (MDS) – Changes to length of supply
  • Duplicate letters – update and changed reporting
  • Safeguarding Conference Report for GP – new proforma
  • Oxford GP Practice Pharmacist Network
  • Cervical Cancer Prevention Week 22 -28 January 2017

Information for Practices
FOR ACTION: Change in Coding of Faecal Occult Blood Testing Results
Further to the communications issued last year about the improvements in the lab testing for faecal occult blood, the codes used to send them to you from 1 February 2018 are changing. Please see the attached document for details and action to take. Queries to:
Return to top
______
Monitored Dosage Systems (MDS) – Changes to length of supply
OUHFT will continue to supply 7 days of medicines in MDS on discharge. To ensure that there is no disruption to the continuation of medication supply in MDS after discharge, hospital pharmacists will contact the relevant GP practice on discharge to inform the GP so that a new prescription can be issued to the community pharmacy in a timely manner.
If you have any queries related to MDS discharges from OUHFT please contact the Trust Medicines Information Helpline on 01865 222 930. Patients can also use this number for any discharged medication related queries. GPs can report issues of safety and clinical quality related to MDS discharges via Datix.
Please note that there has been no change in the quantity of non-MDS medication discharge supplies.
Queries to:
Return to top
______
Duplicate letters – update and changed reporting
Following the successful implementation of the duplicate checker at OUH, the volume of duplicates due to IT glitches has reduced significantly.
I and my counterparts at the OUH are aware that there are still duplicates being sent out and we will continue to work on this issue. The causes of the remaining duplicates seem to be, among other things:
  1. Other providers than the OUH.
  2. Human factors, leading to some departments still manually sending out second copies of correspondence directly.
The second point is being addressed by the OUH chief information officer Dr Paul Altmann working with the departments directly. In the meantime, he asks if you could pleasenow stop sendingthe duplicates directly to him, butto continue to report via DATIX, who will forward to the relevant departments. I will also receive copies of the aggregate submissions via the DATIX team and will work with Paul to tackle any recurrent issues.
Dr Merlin Dunlop
Clinical Lead,Oxfordshire Clinical CommissioningGroup
Email:
Return to top
______
Safeguarding Conference Report for GP – new proforma
The OCCG safeguarding team, in conjunction with children’s social care, has produced an EMIS proforma to generate reports for case conferences. It has been released in the latest proforma updatein response to GP requests for a self-populating formand will be available through your EMIS systems (unfortunately not Vision INPS). When all proformas for a family have been generated, they are attached to a secure email and sent to the case conference administrator address, as detailed on the proforma. If you prefer to send a letter containing the information, that is also acceptable to children’s social care. Vision practices will need to send a letter.
For full details, please see the instructions.
If you have any questions or feedback please email:
Return to top
______
Oxfordshire GP Practice Pharmacist Network
The OCCG Medicines Optimisation team would like to set up a network for Pharmacists working in GP practices in order to bring this group of professionals together and share ideas. The networking can be done electronically but we will also consider arranging meetings and/or training events depending on the appetite and need. In order to get this started, we need to know who is already working in this capacity in primary care. Therefore, if any practice currently has a pharmacist working with them, please could you ask them to send their contact details so that we can get in touch?
Please could you respond to Claire Critchley, Lead Pharmacist for Medicines Optimisation – by Monday 5th February 2018 with thepharmacist’s name, email address, practice(s) and number of days worked.
Return to top
______
Cervical Cancer Prevention Week 22 -28 January 2017
Quick reminder about this week’s campaign and the Jo’s Trust support for practices wishing to run an awareness campaign with their patients. Previously advised in GP Bulletin 10 January.
Return to top
______
To give us your feedback please email: