Minutes of Milton Keynes LOC Sub-Committee

Date: Monday 6th March 2017, 7.00 pm at the Bull Hotel, Stony Stratford.

Present: Bruce Gilson, Raj Shah (chair) Angela McNamee (Secretary), Kalpen Mistry, Claire Ranger, Arif Master, Allan Nall, Barbara Nall.

1. Apologies: None

2. Minutes of Last Meeting – (Sept 2016): Approved.

3. Matters Arising:

MECS fees – The LOC have agreed that it will not sponsor Part 2, and that this is to be sponsored by the optometrists or by the employers.

MECS reaccreditation – Angela has contacted LOCSU, who feel that our mandatory requirement for CET should be sufficient. However, it is working on a solution which will satisfy those CCGs who insist on formal reaccreditation.

Hospital queries raised at last meeting – Kalpen had already advised the group by email of the outcome of these.

4. BUS update and feedback:

There appears to be some discrepancy about the hours during which the fax is manned. Optometrists are still not getting feedback from BUS referrals. Kalpen will get further clarification on both of these points

5. RMS update and feedback: Everything working well

6) Reports (Full reports were circulated in advance)

a)  Chair

There hasn’t been any activity from the area team and we have not had any traction with the CCG because until recently they haven’t appointed a replacement for Asma Ali.

Fortunately, they appointed Michael Ramsden whose official title Planned Care and LTC Lead in January. We are making contact with him via Stephen Nall and are trying to organise something in the next few weeks. We offered to meet on 7th March, but he was unable to attend. I am hoping we may have some news by next week.

The aim once we do meet is to put MECS and GLAUCOMA enhanced services on the agenda.

The Optician magazine did contact us recently as they wanted to do a local feature for Milton Keynes. Not sure if this has been released yet but I did a brief interview regarding the LOC’s role in developing Optometry in Milton Keynes and what services we currently have available.

b)  Secretary

Education

Topic / Toric workshop / Dry eye + glaucoma referrals / BUS update/urgent referrals / OCT peer discussion
Speaker / Steve Wright / Colin Parsloe + Anna Mead / A Miri (+S Dhanoa) / Mandeep Bindra + Heidelberg
Date / 14/09/2016 / 18/10/2016 / 14/11/2016 / 22/02/2017
Venue / MKH / SMH / MKH / SMH
Attendees / D9 O15 Lay1 / O33 D4 OMP 1 / O41 D6 Lay1 / O38 D10 OMP1

Future education

9th March MKH: Visual fields discussion workshop – Areeb Moosavi

19th April SMH: AGM + Dispensing talk [title tbc] – Andy Hepworth

?? May MKH: tbc

6th June SMH: Paediatric discussion workshop – SMH hospital optoms

I aim to get sponsorship for every event, and the sessions above ranged from £200 to £400. Our caterer continues to give us excellent service at a very reasonable rate. Feedback is generally very positive, although some feel that the double sessions go on too long, so I will limit these. We used the dining room at SMH for the February session on OCT.

This gives us the scope to put on peer discussions, whilst still using the auditorium for most events. It was an extremely popular event. I was micro-managing the booked list and waiting list up to an hour before the start, and had only one no-show in the end. There might be problems with acoustics in that room, so I’ll need to make future presenters aware.

NHS England

Clinical Commissioning Group

Asma Ali (planned care programme manager) has left the CCG in September. Her replacement is Michael Ramsden (Planned care & LTC lead), and Raj, Bruce and I will be meeting him on 30th March and bringing along a LOCSU representative with business cases for MECS and glaucoma services. Stephen Nall (primary care project manager) remains a good CCG contact, and he will also be present. MK Eyecare Forum seems to have disappeared again, but we can try and revive it with this new person.

STPs

The latest evolution in the ever-changing structure of NHS England is the introduction of ‘Sustainability and Transformation Plans’. To deliver these plans NHS providers, CCGs, Local Authorities, and other health and care services have come together to form 44 STP ‘footprints’. These are geographic areas in which people and organisations will work together to develop plans to transform the way that health and care is planned and delivered for their populations.

STP number 24 covers Milton Keynes, Bedfordshire and Luton (3 x CCGs), including a population of 0.9 million. STP number 44 covers Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West (7 x CCGs), including a population of 1.7 million.

Regional team

There still appears to be a dedicated NHS primary care team for Hertfordshire, Luton, Bedfordshire, Milton Keynes and Northampton, which is unofficially still called the ‘area team’. This works within the ‘local office’ of NHS England Midlands & East (Central Midlands)”, which also covers Lincolnshire and Leicestershire. This in turn is part of the ‘regional team’ NHS England Midlands & East, one of 4 regional teams in England. We have had little communication with the NHS at this level recently.

PCSE

Primary Care Support England provides the online portal from which primary care contractors can order and track supplies, including GOS stationery. After an unsatisfactory start, PCSE has put great efforts into sorting out its various problems. A major issue has been non-payment of claims, or claims being paid randomly with no identifying tags. They do seem to be slowly getting to grips with this, and also plan to roll out a means of compensating practices who have been affected. I receive regular updates from their Regional Liaison Manager for South Central, and I understand that these are sent out to all practices?

Hospital

No further reports of unpaid HES claims. In October 2016, an updated version of the ‘Urgent & Emergency Eyecare Services’ document was produced, and a new information sheet, detailing those conditions considered as emergencies. These were drawn up in consultation with the eye casualty team at SMH, approved by MKH, and introduced both via the April newsletter, and at the CET event in November.

Newsletter

The November 2016 newsletter contained, amongst other items: links to the new emergency referral documents and the updated eye care pathways for MK and Mid & South Bucks; education event details; and update on the MK cataract service. The next newsletter is due to go out next month.

Website

The website is constantly evolving, existing content updated and obsolete information removed. I’m very happy to take ideas for additions/amendments.

General

As ever, I also answer many enquiries from local practices and performers. I also send many enquiries to LOCSU, AOP, CCGs and NHS England, and deal with many other day-to-day issues, far too numerous to list.

7. AOB

1. Bruce suggested that we should hold the meetings perhaps at least three times a

year rather than two to allow for actions to be followed.

2. Bruce suggested that abbreviated links are used in the newsletter.

3. A number of concerns have been raised by the hospital regarding inappropriate referrals from optometrists. Kalpen will discuss these points further with the hospital, before reporting back to this group. Optometrists are asked not to use a rubber stamp on GOS18 referrals, as this doesn’t reproduce on copy or fax. It was suggested that MK Hospital should be a separate item on future agendas.

4. With reference to the secretary’s report, Angela asked if PCSE updates are also being sent out to MK practices, and this appeared not to be the case, so she will investigate.

5. Kalpen would like to see the patient groups section of the website updated.

8. Date of next meeting(s): – Monday 17th July 2017. Allan to book The Cock.

Meeting concluded at 9.00 pm – recorded by Arif Master

Action / Committee member
To get clarification on BUS fax hours and feedback on BUS referrals / Kalpen
Newsletter/website items – 1. Ask optometrists not to use rubber stamp on GOS18s. 2. Update patient groups. 3. Use abbreviated website links in newsletter. / Angela
Discuss with hospital concerns re optometrist referrals / Kalpen
Put MK Hospital update as agenda item in future / Angela
To find out PCSE Regional Liaison Manager for Midlands / Angela

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