Primary care bulletin - 5 March 2025

Improving planned care and reducing NHS waiting times in North West London: your views

This spring, NHS North West London is engaging with residents, health and care professionals, community groups and stakeholders to develop a new strategy for planned care. Planned care refers to a non-emergency health care, such as hospital outpatient appointments or planned surgery. The strategy does not cover mental health.

To help improve waiting times, fair access and patient experience, we need to consider the changing needs of people in north west London, the increasing number of people who are seeking care, and how we tackle the unfair differences in waiting times and care experiences for people from different communities.

The views we capture during this engagement will help shape the strategy and inform positive improvements for staff and patients.

We have published an issues papers for residents which sets out our aims and the challenges. To read this paper and find out how to get involved, please visit www.nwlondonicb.nhs.uk/plannedcare. We have also published a more detailed briefing on this for professionals. We would be grateful if you could share this information with stakeholders, resident groups and colleagues so we capture a wide range of views.

NHS North West London optometry - led community eye care service

Primary Eyecare Services (PES) has been awarded a contract by NHS North West London to deliver an optometry led community eye care service following a procurement process. The new service launched today (5 March 2025).

PES is a national not-for-profit optometry organisation, providing eye care services through local networks of optometry practices in the community.

The NHS North West London service includes a:

Community Eye Service (CES), similar to a Minor Eye Conditions Service (MECS)
Pre-cataract referral assessment
Glaucoma referral filtering service.

The services are NHS funded and are available to all patients registered with a north west London practice.

The practitioner or staff member providing support to the patient should provide them with the leaflet (below) or signpost them to the appropriate participating practice.

Find out more about the new service.

There is also a referral pathway flow chat and patient leaflet available.
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Smartcard issues affecting some staff

There are two known issues affecting staff.

Learn more and find out about potential solutions.

The Setting Up Nurse/Pharmacist Prescriber on SystmOne and Configuration Preferences for Prescribing in SystmOne as referenced in the above document are available.

One-stop rapid access diagnostic breast clinic – imaging from another provider

Please see an update from Imperial's service.

Supporting young people with eating disorders

To coincide with Eating Disorder Awareness Week, CNWL launched a campaign to raise awareness of the services we offer to support people who are struggling with disordered eating and encourage them to reach out for support before their problems get worse.

We are particularly keen to reach 16 to 35 year olds who have concerns about food or body image. The campaign coincides with launching self-referral into the STRIDES service, which offers evidence-based interventions to young adults with mild to moderate eating difficulties.

The service is available to 16-35 year olds registered with a GP in the north west London boroughs of Kensington & Chelsea, Westminster, Harrow, Hillingdon and Brent.

It provides support for those experiencing issues such as:

Feeling preoccupied with thoughts about eating
Worrying about your body weight and shape
Restricting food to control your weight
Compensating for your eating
Having food binges
Feeling like your relationship with food, exercise, or your body is having a negative impact on your life.

The STRIDES Team help young adults understand their eating problems and develop practical skills to manage their eating habits. emotions, and body image.

The service is inclusive, supporting people of all races, sizes, gender identities, sexual orientations, and backgrounds. However, they do not accept referrals for individuals with high medical risk related to their eating disorder but collaborates with the Vincent Square Eating Disorder Service and GPs to ensure appropriate support for those with higher medical needs.

There is a self-referral option available, but GPs can also refer.

More information is on the website.

Imperial's neurosurgery referrals has changed to advice and guidance

Imperial's neurosurgery department has changed their referral service to advice and guidance only. This is due to the service being under extreme pressure with patients experiencing long waits for new outpatient appointments.

A letter explains further reasoning for the changes.

Compassionate care for all - adult community specialist palliative care programme

The public consultation on the future of adult community specialist palliative care has now closed as of Monday 24 February 2025. We extend our sincere thanks to everyone who provided feedback during this consultation period. Your insights to date and in the future will be invaluable in shaping the future of local healthcare services.

This consultation has been an important opportunity to listen to residents and work together to shape the future of healthcare services in north west London. We are grateful for the engagement and thoughtful contributions from the community, which have been instrumental in refining the proposed model of care.

The proposed model of care has been shaped by extensive engagement and co-design with residents and stakeholders since December 2021. This has included multiple phases of engagement and co-design through working groups.

All feedback received from the consultation will be independently reviewed and analysed by 3ST, an alliance of the voluntary and community sector across north west London, and a report will be produced to inform the final decision-making.

We will work with individual boroughs and providers to develop implementation plans, addressing gaps in service provision and supporting the proposed improvements to how care is provided.

We will keep you informed as we move forward.

To find out more information about the consultation and the proposed key improvements visit www.nwlondonicb.nhs.uk/cspc

Missing Laptop Information (primary care users only)

A large number of primary care laptops in our systems are missing important information. We will soon be sending a messages to these devices requesting this information.

This is required for the N365 migration project, capacity planning and general asset management. 
 
A pop-up notification (see below) will appear on on their devices. The pop-up will remain or be repeated until the relevant information is provided.

We would appreciate your assistance in this matter.

Hillingdon Hospitals 2ww urology pathway alert (Hillingdon GPs only)

The Hillingdon Hospital NHS Trust have implemented a nurse-led ‘fast track’ programme for suspected prostate cancer patients, via a telephone triage service which will go live on Monday 11 March 2025.

The purpose of the telephone triage is to assess patient suitability for straight to test (MRI), ensuring the best course of action for the individual patient prior to an outpatient appointment.

A letter from the Trust explains more about the service.

Education and training

North west London homeless health clinical ‘Community of Practice’ (CoP) event

The session takes places on Thursday 13 March 2025, 12 - 1pm. Join via Teams at the start of the meeting.

We have a guest speaker confirmed; Dr Sara Ketteley (Consultant Psychiatrist - South Westminster Hub/Victoria PCN, Honorary Senior Lecturer - Imperial College, Local Tutor - Westminster, Consultant Psychiatrist - Great Chapel Street Medical Centre)

She will be presenting on the ‘value of mental health formulation and diagnosis and the recognition of multimorbidity/complexity’ and there will be an opportunity to ask questions at the end of the presentation.

We will also have an opportunity for you to bring any:

Anonymised cases for peer discussion / sharing of expertise
Homeless health projects that would benefit from advice from the support network
System blocks you're experiencing with accessing support for this population.

If you have anything else you’d like to suggest for the agenda, please email Janaka Yatigammana.

Please forward this email to any fellow clinicians you think would like to attend.

North West London Training Hub newsletter

The North West London Training Hub newsletter keeps those working in primary care updated with the latest training offers from the North West London Training Hub.

Read the issue and previous issues, or sign up to receive via email.

NHS England general practice webinar

The next GP webinar from the NHS England contracting team will take place on Thursday 3 April 2025, 5 - 6pm.

Register and find further details on the NHS England website.