COVID-19: 2nd March round-up for primary care
Thank you for your continued work and dedication, juggling many demands and priorities while providing high quality care and support for your patients.
If you are finding things difficult at the moment please consider our free and confidential coaching offer #LookingAfterYouToo, available for all primary care staff. It’s benefitted many of your colleagues with over 7,000 sessions completed to date, and our experienced coaches are on hand seven days a week to help support and maintain your psychological wellbeing.
UK charities join together to boost vaccine drive
Sixteen frontline charities have formed a new partnership to encourage those with long-term health conditions and their carers to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Organisations including The British Heart Foundation, Macmillan Cancer Support and Mencap are joining with the government and NHS to promote vaccine uptake among those the charities support every day. Working with the government on the UK’s largest ever medical deployment, the charities will use the combined strength of their networks to reassure people with long-term health conditions about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine.
COVID-19 Local Vaccination Services waste management
It is vitally important that vaccination sites segregate all waste into the proper waste stream. Doing so reduces pressures on the waste services infrastructure, reduces the impact on the environment, significantly reduces costs, and ensures compliance with relevant waste regulations. All waste should be disposed of into the allocated consumables and stored securely on site or transferred to another site as required (e.g. roving vaccinators) following each vaccination session. The principles of the COVID-19 waste management SOP should be followed.
COVID-19: 4th March round-up for primary care
As we continue to work on delivering the COVID-19 vaccination programme across the country, supporting those who are dealing with the long-term effects of COVID-19 continues to be a key priority.
A set of SNOMED CT codes to support the management of these long term effects have been released and are available on all major GP EPR systems. Knowledge about Post-COVID syndrome is currently limited so it is vital that we increase the use of Post-COVID syndrome codes where appropriate, to allow data to be captured for learning, service planning and research. You can find more information about the codes on the PCN Future NHS workspace.
There are 67 Post-COVID Assessment Services across the country. Each region has an identified lead for post COVID services, details of which are available on Future NHS, along with information on how local teams or post COVID assessment services can refer patients to the Your COVID Recovery online platform. Please contact your regional lead for further information on Long COVID services and patient pathways in your area.
To best equip clinicians to help patients with post-COVID syndrome, the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) have produced tips on the management of long-term effects of COVID-19 and Health Education England (HEE) have set-up e-learning modules on COVID-19 recovery and rehabilitation.
Updated version of easy read vaccination invitation letter for people with a learning disability
The easy read vaccination invitation letter for people with a learning disability has been updated and the new version should now be used when calling these patients for a vaccination appointment. The previous version should be deleted and your teams advised of this change. The letter has been updated to allow the opportunity, should individuals and their families wish, to attend mass vaccination sites and pharmacies by contacting the National Booking Service via 119. Appropriate system arrangements are now set in place to facilitate these arrangements.
Please also continue to use the accessible resources produced in collaboration with people with lived experience to support clinicians and non-clinicians in communicating with people with a learning disability and their family carers. These include a Covid-19 Vaccine film, Public Health England's easy read Covid vaccination leaflet, 'What to expect after the vaccine' leaflet and adult consent form and additional training materials for COVID 19 vaccinators and volunteers which provide top tips on communicating with people with a learning disability and autistic people and reasonable adjustments that should be considered.
Free training for vaccination staff and volunteers
It’s essential that everyone who comes for a vaccine feels safe, supported and understood. The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) have free training available to staff and volunteers working on the vaccine programme to help you feel more confident in supporting people with sight loss. You can pick from three short online training modules covering communication, how to guide, and the experiences of people with sight loss, relevant to your time in the vaccination programme and beyond. Visit the website and click the “register” button to access the training. If you don’t have much time, you can download a quick “handy tips” document for working with people with sight loss and display it in staff areas of your vaccination centre. They have also produced a ‘Helping you to help others’ guide.
National Pharmacy Association COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy webinar now available online
A webinar for community pharmacy teams on understanding COVID-19 vaccinations and addressing vaccine hesitancy is now available to view on demand.
This event was organised by the National Pharmacy Association, recognising that people have a high level of trust in their local pharmacists, which could be an important factor in overcoming doubts and misapprehensions about vaccines for COVID-19 – including within Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities. Speakers included: Dr Shirley Hopper, Medical Assessor, Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and Professor Jeremy Brown, Professor of Respiratory Infection UCL, Member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.
