4 May 2020
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:
- Please read if you have not yet done so: Letter to all GPs in North West London: Update on elective referrals
- Message from NHSE re birth registrations
- Webinar from Imperial: Covid-19 presentations in our paediatric population
- NHSE guidance to Accessing supplies of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for primary care, hospices, social care and home care providers
Please read if you have not yet done so: Letter to all GPs in North West London: Update on elective referrals
ACTION: Read the letter in full and act accordingly
On Friday you will have received a letter from all North West London CCG Chairs regarding elective referrals. If you haven’t yet read it, please do so now.
Message from NHSE re birth registrations
ACTION: Please ensure that babies are registered with family and given names. Remember that the registration of babies in a timely manner is business critical and a safeguarding requirement.
We are aware that all Borough Birth Registrations have been closed and therefore parents are presenting to register their babies without a birth certificate. We would like to remind GP Practice that the registration of babies in a timely manner is business critical and a safeguarding requirement. It is not a requirement for the parent(s) to provide, or the practice to have sight of the birth certificate in order to register the baby. Please ensure that babies are registered with family and given names. If the parents have not yet chosen a given name(s) ‘Baby’ should only be entered in exceptional circumstances and followed up an updated as soon as possible with given name(s).
Webinar from Imperial: Covid-19 presentations in our paediatric population
ACTION: Sign up below if useful
Date: Wednesday 6 May
Time: 1-2pm including Q&A
Speakers: Dr Mando Watson (Consultant Paediatrician, Clinical Director CLCH); Dr Liz Whittaker (Clinical Lecturer and Consultant Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunology); Professor Ian Machonochie (Paediatric Emergency Care Consultant).
The paediatric team from Imperial NHS Trust join us to discuss the current status with Covid-19 in children and young people, explain some of the new findings around inflammatory diseases in children and answer questions on the child health challenges that GPs have.
Joining instructions
Click on the Live Teams event link. There is no need to pre-register for this event. Copy and paste https://bit.ly/2ykkxdI into your browser if the link doesn’t open.
NHSE guidance to Accessing supplies of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for primary care, hospices, social care and home care providers
There are a range of options available to primary care, hospices and home care providers to get of PPE equipment.
Additional supplies of PPE equipment continue to be made available to wholesalers that routinely supply to GPs, dentists, pharmacies, social care and hospices
Regional NHS leadership teams are working with individual trusts to support mutual aid and redistribution of supplies to meet greatest clinical need.
Local Resilience Forums (LRFs) have received a push of PPE supplies to respond to local spikes in need, including those in social care and primary care, where there are current blockages in the supply chain. The PPE stock provided to LRFs is to support urgent need in vital services which are not linked to the NHS Supply Chain. This PPE is intended to support service providers which have exhausted their usual routes for PPE and there remains an urgent need for additional stock.
A new online ordering site is being developed and will enable primary care, community care and social care providers to register their PPE requirements more easily. The site will be rolled out so that these providers can request critical PPE from a central inventory. Further details will be released on how to register directly to providers as part of a phased approach. Orders will be managed in line with the published guidance from Public Health England and shipped directly via Royal Mail.
Accessing urgent supplies
Any organisation running critically short of PPE, and has exhausted other supply routes, can phone the National Supply Distribution Response (NSDR) on 0800 915 9964 for an urgent delivery.
