*
OCCG Weekly Bulletin
Wednesday 5 April 2017
Included in this bulletin:
  • Registration for Medical Terminology Training
  • New Oxford Locums Website Available Now
  • SCaN Data Collection
  • Cardiac Event Monitoring Referrals – Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
  • Cancer Survivorship
  • ICT – Blocking Third Party Access to Servers
  • Vulnerable Children’s Resettlement Programme Service Specification March 2017
  • March 2017 Wire Newsletter
  • Share Your Views On Proposals To Improve Health Services
  • Cancer and Nutrition GP Survey from National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)

Information for Practices
Registration for Medical Terminology Training:
Registration is available now for Medical Terminology training for practice staff. Please click on the attached flyer herewhich will take you to the online registration page on the RCGP website. Once you have completed online registration, you will receive an automated email confirmation.
Staff are advised to note their chosen venue address on the flyer and to use satnav for travel if unfamiliar with the venue. Please arrive 10-15 minutes prior to start time of the session to allow time for parking and registration. All staff must stay to the end of the session to be eligible to receive a certificate.
As soon as staff have completed Medical Terminology training, they can proceed to Workflow Optimisation training straight away.
Please contact Senior Commissioning Manager, OCCG if you have any queries.
Return to top
New Oxford Locums Website Available Now:
not for profit membership organisation set up by Locums to make it easier to find and fill GP positions across Oxfordshire. It replaces aim to helpGP practices and other employersfind sessional GPsto fill locumvacancies. The website also provides an online venue for advertisinglonger term or more permanent job opportunities for GPs in Oxfordshire
OCCG has supported the set-up of oxfordlocums.com – members will need to pay a small annual subscription HOWEVER the site is FREE until 1 June 2017.
Return to top
------
SCaN Data Collection:
In January 2017 we launched the start of the SCaN project for suspected cancer patients with “low risk, not no risk” symptoms, see the Pathway document here.
Patients that might suit this pathway will have low risk symptoms as below.
• Persistent nausea or appetite loss
• Unexplained Weight Loss
• Severe unexplained fatigue
• New atypical pain
• Unexplained laboratory test findings
• GP Clinical Suspicion of cancer or serious disease (“gut feeling”)
Success in evaluating the research depends on collecting a control group of patients, prior to launch, who would use the pathway if it was in existence. These patients can be referred in using the Dummy Referral formherewhich is currently in your EMIS templates.
Prior to receiving any dummy referral forms we need permission to use this data (which will be entirely anonymised) by the signing of the attached Information Sharing Protocol form herefrom each practice. If this has not been done already then please do get a clinician to sign it and send it back electronically to
The control group of patients will get the usual treatment deemed appropriate by their G.P. at the time. This information can be used, later in the research, to follow their progress and to see if intervention might have made a difference and to validate SCaN so it is vital for success.
Once we have collected the correct number of patients per locality the SCaN pathway will be opened to that locality. More information about how and when to refer to will then be sent out via your locality leads.
I hope you will be able to take part in contributing to this work and take us one step closer to achieving better quality cancer care for our patients.
We have now had 42 practices sign up to the scheme, so we would like to encourage those who are left to sign and return their agreements. We also would like to encourage all those that have returned their agreements to start submitting their Dummy Referral forms; these can be for current or retrospective patients. The more we get the sooner we can launch the live pathway for patients to access in your locality.
Enquires and questions can also be sent to the address above. Many thanks for your help.
Dr Shelley Hayles
OCCG Cancer lead
Return to top
------
Cardiac Event Monitoring Referrals – Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust:
The account for referrals to cardiac physiology for ECG & ambulatory monitoring is now live.
Please send all referrals from GPs for patients to attend at the John Radcliffe site to: .
Please send referrals for patients to attend at the Horton to Dr Arnold’s secretary whilst an electronic referral route is established for the Horton site.
The cardiology advice line should only be used for ECG/Ambulatory monitor tracings requiring consultant advice.
Return to top
------
Cancer Survivorship:
We are considering whether greater use of visual information systems could improve awareness of pathways and other aspects of health care. Please complete and submit the brief Survey Monkey questionnaire to help us understand if and how you already use visual information systems (e.g. TVs or VDUs) in waiting rooms at your practice. The survey should take about one minute to complete from the following link:

Return to top
------
ICT - Blocking Third Party Access to Servers:
From Tuesday 4 April 2017 Oxfordshire University Hospitals Information Management and Technology (OUHIMT) service has been blocking access by third party tools to their servers, filling a vital gap in their information governance and cyber-security.
This affects GP practices, as providers who support IT in our Oxfordshire practices (such as ABS and Healthcare Computing (HCC) have traditionally used such tools to remotely access GP systems.
Over the last few months, therefore, OCCG and CSU have negotiated to delay the OUH block until functional workarounds for the main providers supporting our practices could be in place. These pathways are now implemented, and so GP IT support should not be affected significantly by this development.
EMIS should not be affected. However, if there are problems that you think are related to the block, as confirmed by the provider (ABS, HCC, Docman)), please contact the OUHIMT help desk and also send a Datix report on the issue
Dr Paul Park
GP in Banbury and Chief Clinical Information Officer of OCCG
Return to top
------
Vulnerable Children’s Resettlement Scheme March 201:
Vulnerable Children’s Resettlement Schemeis a Home Office scheme to resettle vulnerable refugee children and their families from the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region. A small number of families are due to arrive in Oxfordshire on this scheme. Families are refugees registered with UNHCR who come from a variety of different countries. If a family will reside in your catchment area, the Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning representative will contact your practice to organise registration for the family and ensure that medical needs are addressed on arrival.
Please click hereto view the SLA for the scheme which outlines more information and provides web-links to useful resources to help support refugees.
For more information please contact
Tel: 01865 336867
------
March 2017 Wire Newsletter:
Please click hereto view this month’s Wire newsletter – the monthly GP IT bulletin for Oxfordshire. This includes a list of proforma updates, as well as other important information.
Return to top
------
Share Your Views On Proposals To Improve Health Services:
The NHS in Oxfordshire wants to hear what you think on possible changes to some local health services as part of the first phase of the 'The Big Health and Care Consultation'.
As part of the consultation we have already held 11 public events where people shared their views and asked questions about our proposals on maternity and planned and critical care at the Horton General Hospital in Banbury, as well as stroke services and hospital beds across Oxfordshire.
There will be further opportunities in the coming weeks to take part in discussions with doctors and NHS staff to make your views known on our proposals (see the story below for more details of these events). You can also share your views via a survey.
To read our proposals and to take part in the survey click hereYou can request a paper copy of both the consultation document and the survey by calling 01865 334638 or
You can also listen to recordings of five of the public events on OCCG's YouTube channellisten here
Please note the consultation closes on April 9 2017.
Return to top
------
Cancer and Nutrition GP Survey from National Institute for Health Research:
NIHR is mapping how nutritional status is assessed and what nutritional advice is given to cancer patients across the UK. This will enable them to develop a quality-assured framework for assessing nutritional status, and maximise the capacity of the professional workforce by creating quality-assured standards of practice, developing training programmes and creating a community of practice. This GP survey follows up a survey of secondary care clinicians in 2016.
You can access the survey at: NIHR advise it takes up to 10 minutes to complete.
Queries
Return to top
------
To give us your feedback please email:
Return to top