16 April 2025
Bulletin
Changes to GP contract; Local Capacity and Access Improvement Payment; Education and training; and more.

Welcome to this week's primary care bulletin

Key points this week include:
  • changes to the GP contract - patient safety
  • final chance to claim your Local Capacity and Access Improvement Payment (CAIP) Modern General Practice Payments
  • pharmacy opening hours over Easter
  • guidance on shared care agreements with unregulated providers for children and young people with gender incongruence.
Webinars and training, including:
  • future of primary care webinar - updated link
  • London region community of practice for Covid-19 and flu vaccinations session
  • rethinking pain management: a practical guide to opioids in chronic non-cancer pain
  • practical pain science session
  • new dates released for polypharmacy action learning set workshops.

If you have any submissions for this bulletin please email them to the communications inbox - nhsnwl.communications.nwl@nhs.net. View previous editions.

As Monday is a bank holiday, the deadline for submissions will be 12pm on Tuesday 22 April 2025.

Changes to the GP contract - patient safety

The primary care patient safety strategy was published in September 2024. In 2025/26 GP practices will be required to have regard to the patient safety strategy and also register for an administrator account (unless their local risk management system is already connected) with the learn from patient safety events service (LFPSE) for the purposes of:
  1. recording patient safety events at the practice about the services delivered by the practice, thereby contributing to the national NHS-wide data source to support learning, improvement and learning culture
  2. enabling the practice to record patient safety events occurring in other health care settings (for instance if a GP practice wished to record an unsafe discharge from hospital)
  3. individuals recording patient safety events being able to download a copy of the record for purposes of supporting appraisal and revalidation.
Please contact the NHS North West London Primary Care Quality Team if you require support with any areas of patient safety: nhsnwl.pcquality@nhs.net.
Final chance to claim your Local Capacity and Access Improvement Payment (CAIP) Modern General Practice Payments
 
Please note that all claims can only be in relation to activity up to 31 March 2025 but can be received up to 30 April 2025.

The purpose of this communication  is to provide General Practices and PCNs with clarity on the Local Capacity and Access Improvement Payment (CAIP) requirements, assessment criteria and the ICB evidence requests for these areas in order to the release funds within the year. 

The process is outlined below:
  • all assurance forms need to be signed by the Clinical Lead for each PCN and they takes responsibility for the accuracy of the information supplied
  • PCNs can claim payment for each of the three components separately and at different times in the year,  they need to confirm compliance with all that’s required for that specific component. They can’t ask for partial payment of a component if they are only partially compliant
  • the Digital Transformation Team will check with the regional teams that the practices have signed the data sharing agreements (DPNs) for digital telephony and online requests.
  • care navigation evidence should additionally have a flow chart/process map  which shows the patients journey if contacting the practice by online, face to face  or telephone to ensure a consistent approach
  • all assurance forms should be sent to the NHS North West London Primary Care Digital Transformation Team at nhsnwl.digitalfirst@nhs.net for processing.
A list of relevant documents can be found below:
  1. original practice letter sent from Julie Sands - Primary care are looking after the budget on this incentive but as the payment is based on digital competencies the Digital Transformation Team are approving the applications
  2. the CAP assurance form - This needs to be completed for any of the three components being claimed: (1) Better digital telephony; (2) Simpler online requests; (3) Faster care navigation, assessment, and response
  3. FAQs which should be able to help around any queries
  4. DES contract which has highlighted the elements pertaining to the Local CAIP payment p51 - 53.

Pharmacy opening hours over Easter

Bank Holidays can affect the opening hours of local pharmacies.

Find full details of the opening arrangements for pharmacies in north west London, including details of those who have been asked to open over the holiday period.

Guidance on shared care agreements with unregulated providers for children and young people with gender incongruence 

NHS England has cascaded new guidance that advises general practitioners against shared care agreements with unregulated providers in relation to hormone medication to children and young people under 18 as a response to gender incongruence / gender dysphoria.

The guidance outlines that:
  • a GP must refuse to support the private prescribing or supply of GnRH analogues
  • a GP should refuse to support an unregulated provider in the prescribing or supply of alternative medications that may be used to suppress pubertal development
  • a GP should refuse to support an unregulated provider in the prescribing of exogenous hormones.
The cascaded letter states an unregulated provider is one that is not registered with, or regulated by, a UK health regulator such as the Care Quality Commission or Health Inspectorate Wales. More information is available in the letter.

In all cases, safeguarding measures should be considered where the administration of a medicine from an unregulated source presents an immediate safety risk.

Education and training

Future of primary care webinar - updated link


The webinar will focus on building primary care infrastructure.

It takes place on Wednesday 16 April 2025, 7 - 8pm. Register for the event.
London region community of practice for Covid-19 and flu vaccinations session

The online session takes place on Thursday 24 April 2025, 12.30 - 1.45pm.

Find out more and register.
Rethinking pain management: a practical guide to opioids in chronic non-cancer pain

Join Dr. Graham Dunthorne (Appraiser and Pain Physician, Connect Health) for an engaging webinar, “rethinking pain management: a practical guide to opioids in chronic non-cancer pain”, on Wednesday 23 April 2025, 12 – 1.30pm. 

This interactive session covers a NICE update on chronic pain treatments, practical steps for reviewing high-risk prescriptions, strategies for positive patient consultations and collaborative approaches to medicine tapering. 

You will have the opportunity to put forward any questions in a Q&A.  

Find out more and register for the session.
Practical pain science session
 
Connect Health and Flippin’ Pain in partnership with Imperial College Health Partners would like to invite you to the upcoming north west London practical pain science for healthcare professionals session on Wednesday 30 April 2025, 12.30 - 5pm. 

Led by leading experts, this informative and interactive session will explore the biological, psychological, and social dimensions of pain. Developing confidence in understanding pain science can lead to more effective patient support, particularly in medication management and prescribing. 

This will be an engaging professional development event suitable for all health professionals working in pain management in north west London. Lunch and refreshments will be provided. 

Please click here to register for the session.  

Feel free to circulate to other colleagues who may be interested.  

Gain insights, network with experts and enhance your skills.

For further information and/or to get involved with the Chronic Pain in Primary Care & Opioid Harm Reduction Programme please contact catherine.caldwell@imperialcollegehealthpartners.com  
New dates released for polypharmacy action learning set workshops
 
The dates for cohort twenty-four are 4 and 18 June, and 2 July 2025.

The National Polypharmacy Programme exclusively invites our north west London prescribers to join the Action Learning Set (ALS). The programme aims to build GP and prescribing health care professionals’ confidence in and understanding of the complex issue surrounding and stopping inappropriate medicines safely. Delegates need to attend all three sessions. The ALS with also help PCNs deliver the medicines optimisation elements of the new directed enhanced services contract and contributes to the QoF.

Learn more about Polypharmacy ALS and sign up.