OCCG Weekly Bulletin
Wednesday 22 November 2017
Included in this bulletin:
- FOR ACTION: Changes to Urgent Eye Conditions Pathway
- New MSK Service – Updated FAQs
- FreeStyleLibre Requested Not To Prescribe
- Extension of the Seasonal Flu Programme to Include Social Care Workers
- Children’s Flu Vaccine
- Care Worker Campaign
- GeneralPractice Workshop 12December 2017 – Exploring Mergers and Working at Scale
- Tissue Viability Training 2018
Information for Practices
FOR ACTION: Changes to Urgent Eye Conditions Pathway:
Please see the attached signposting sheet,designed for GPs, nurses or receptionists with training to use, when patients present with eye problems.
Also attached is a patient leafletfor the waiting room.
They both describe the optimal pathway of care for patients, with recent eye conditions, who contact their GP.
These materials have been introduced to:
- To improve patient care for those with red flag presentations and to safetynet their attendance to Eye Casualty.
- Help reduce the cost pressures on MECS and Eye Casualty by making better use of pharmacy and supporting self-care. (Not all eye conditions automatically go to MECS; some can be seen and treated by pharmacists so please use this valuable service where appropriate).
This service change does not mean that patients require a referral prior to attending MECS; it simply helps practice staff to understand what MECS covers, and the best place for patients to be seen.
Eye Casualty:
When sending patients to OUH Eye Casualty, an appointment or telephone booking is not required. The patient simply self-attends. However a brief email with patient name, contact number and presentation to should be sent via a clinician on an NHS.net account.
This email will let OUH Eye Casualty know that the patient has been sent by a clinician and will alert them to arrival. It also allows for safety-netting if the patient fails to attend.
Without this email the patient will face a longer wait and triage at Eye Casualty.
A template for this, to be raised via the practice software, will be organised to save time.
Please get in touch via email, with any questions or concerns.
Yours sincerely
Shelley Hayles, OCCG Clinical Lead
Tom Stocker, Senior Commissioning Manager, Oxfordshire CCG
Nita Mahalingham, Clinical Lead for MECS, and Interim Chair of the Local Optometry Committee
Stella Hornby, Consultant Lead for Eye Casualty, Oxford University Hospitals NHS FT
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New MSK Service – Updated FAQs:
In response to further queries from practices about the new service please download a revised FAQ document here.
Added or updated information has a yellow highlighted question and includes:
- What is the process for requesting diagnostics?
- Will Healthshare contact patients that had appointments booked (and cancelled) by the previous providers?
- How long will it take Healthshare to respond?
- Which Podiatry Referrals go to Healthshare?
- What is the process for consultant to consultant referrals?
- What information resource is there for patients/GPs?
FreeStyleLibre Requested Not To Prescribe:
OCCG reminds prescribers in primary care are requested not to prescribe Freestyle Libre® glucose monitoring sensors on an NHS prescription until the Freestyle Libre® device has been evaluated and approved for use. Please see the attached updated statement. Queries to .
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Extension of the Seasonal Flu Programme for Include Social Care Workers:
NHS England has announced that the seasonal flu programmeincludes social care workers as of 1 November 2017.
Please see the specification on the NHS England website:
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Children’s Flu Vaccine:
Data received from the NHSE system Immform indicates that there is a low uptake of influenza vaccination in the age 2 and 3 categories. OCCG would like to take the opportunity to encourage practice s to continue to invite parents of this age group to attend for vaccination, either by writing, text or email and please access the resource below to remind parents that the childhood vaccination is not an injection:
5 reasons to vaccinate your child against flu
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Care Worker Campaign:
The ‘Make a difference every day’ campaign, which was launched this week, is part of a continuing drive to encourage more people to apply to become care workers in Oxfordshire. It is an effort to bring down DToC numbers and meet rising demand for care among our ageing population. For more information please click here.
This four month campaign is being jointly run and funded by and Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (OCCG), Oxfordshire County Council (OCC), Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (OUH) and Oxford Health Foundation Trust (OHFT) in partnership with the Oxfordshire Association of Care Providers (OACP).
Its focus is on care work as a rewarding and satisfying job, supporting mainly older, frail people with complex health problems at home, in residential/nursing homes and in community hospital settings. For more information please go to
Can you display the attached poster herein your waiting rooms?
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General Practice Workshop 12 December 2017 – Exploring Mergers and Working At Scale:
Following on from last week’s bulletin please find a draft agendahere for the above workshop on 12 December 2017 to be held in Jubilee house, Oxford starting promptly at 7.30pm with sandwiches and refreshments from 7pm. This workshop is available to all practices and federations with initially a maximum of 2 places per practice. To register for a place(s) please email Laura Allen () with the names of those that will attend.
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Tissue Viability Training 2018:
Please find attached a schedulehere for a range of tissue viability training for clinicians working in general practice provided by the Oxford Health FT Tissue Viability Service. To book onto a course please e-mail
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To give us your feedback please email: