14 January 2025
Bulletin
Vaccination programmes; Digital first communications; Education and training; and more.

Welcome to this week's primary care bulletin

Key points this week include:
  • publication of general practice enhanced service specification and sign up process to the COVID-19 and adult influenza vaccination programmes: 1 April 2026 - 31 March 2027
  • RM Partner's Cancer GP Bulletin out now
  • expression of interest: Improving NHS Health Check uptake using a point of care lipid test as an engagement tool
  • complete a survey on maternity services
  • Rapid Access to Valve Assessment Pathway
  • Digital First communications resources
  • HealthShare ultrasound reports
  • Phase 2 HPV SelfScreen London expressions of interest
  • Cervical Screening London Sample Taker Update
  • reducing DNAs toolkit for London now published on NHS Future
  • NHS e-Referral Service (e-RS) major incident update.
Education and training:
  • primary care systems training
  • free education session on practical FeNO and asthma webinar 
  • webinars on optimising antibiotic prescribing

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


Please note the deadline for submissions is 3pm each Monday.
Publication of general practice enhanced service specification and sign up process to the COVID-19 and adult influenza vaccination programmes: 1 April 2026 - 31 March 2027

As previously communicated, the general practice enhanced service specifications for the 2026/27 COVID-19 and Influenza seasonal vaccination programmes have been published, along with a letter for providers which summarises the key changes to the enhanced service specifications – links to both documents are provided below.
Further to this communication, we have received a few clarifying queries from GP practices. As such, please refer to the sign up guidance (PDF) confirming the necessary actions practice need to take depending on what they are intending to sign-up to and deliver during 2026-27.
RM Partner's Cancer GP Bulletin out now

The bulletin contains information on:
  1. important updates on the hereditary pancreatic cancer research registry
  2. cancer education sessions 
  3. The You Know Them Best campaign for early diagnosis of childhood cancer 
  4. prostate cancer screening draft recommendation – UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) announcement 
  5. harm inflicted upon individuals who were exposed to Diethylstilbesterol (DES) 
  6. new cervical screening Digital First communications resources.
Download the bulletin (PDF) now.
Expression of interest: Improving NHS Health Check uptake using a point of care lipid test as an engagement tool

One of the priorities of NHS North West London is to optimise care people with long-term conditions, starting with cardiovascular disease (CVD), through innovation.

Imperial College Health Partners is exploring how new technology and innovation can improve the detection of CVD risk by reducing the detection gap and optimising treatment and care.  

We’re looking for primary care teams in north west London who are interested in replicating an NHS Health Check engagement model trialled in the east of England, sending out home point of care lipid tests to encourage high risk residents to attend their health checks.

A document (PDF) explains more about taking part and expressing your interest.
Complete a survey on maternity services

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust’s maternity specialist services, including maternity trauma and loss, perinatal pelvic health, maternal medicine, and post-birth contraception, are preparing a webinar to support you and other health professionals across north west London, including GPs, ANPs, practice nurses and health visitors.

To help shape this event, we’ve created a short questionnaire to understand your awareness of existing GP webinars and identify topics that would support your work with preconception and postnatal patients. 

Please complete the Microsoft Forms Survey.

If you have any questions, please email Fiona Ghalustians.
Rapid Access to Valve Assessment Pathway

The Rapid Access to Valve Assessment (RAVA) initiative aims to provide patients with severe left heart valve disease rapid access to specialist assessment and streamline the referral process through to treatment. Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust is one of five sites nationwide implementing this pathway, supported by NHS England and the NHS Transformation Unit.

Key points for primary care:
  • GPs should continue to refer patients via e-RS. Referrals can be re-routed into the dedicated valve e-vetting queue
  • direct access echocardiograms identifying severe valve disease will trigger urgent escalation to a consultant-led valve clinic or Aortic/TAVI clinic
  • patients will be seen within 2 weeks of referral for specialist assessment, with treatment targets set at 12 weeks for severe symptomatic cases.
The FAQ document (PDF) provides detailed guidance on referral processes, pathway benefits and alignment with national standards.
Digital First communications resources

New cervical screening Digital First communications posters are now available for use on digital screens or for printing. They are designed to support cervical screening providers in sharing information about Digital First communications. These resources are available on NHS Futures.
HealthShare ultrasound reports

The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Trust are currently outsourcing some direct access ultrasound requests to Healthshare. These reports are sent back to the referring GP.

Please to ensure that when you are referring to the Trust or using Rego or the e-RS service you attach any ultrasound results from healthshare to your referral request to ensure the triaging clinician has these to access to these reports, to help with a quicker response.
Phase 2 HPV SelfScreen London expressions of interest

NHS England (London region) successfully launched HPV self‑screening in September 2025 for people who are at least six months overdue for their cervical screening. A total of 8,400 screens are now being offered in 36 practices across north west and south west London.

We are now invited to take part in phase 2 of the London programme, and we have additional screens available for 50 new practices to join.

The YouScreen study found that the provision of self‑sampling can increase uptake of cervical screening and reduce variation by reaching under‑served populations, including women from ethnic minority and deprived communities. Additionally, it is anticipated that self‑sampling will support uptake among groups who may find screening distressing or difficult, including trans men, people with learning difficulties, those with mental health issues, or individuals with a history of abuse.

Your practice is invited to submit an expression of Interest to take part in phase 2. Please see Word EOI form for details of the project and the eligibility criteria for practices. Please note that practices already taking part will continue into phase 2 and do not need to apply again. Practices that were signed up to the diagnostic tampon pilot, or have signed up to the Appt Health project, are eligible to apply.

If you have any questions, please contact Jane Derbyshire or Narinder Sinclair. 

The process is being run on a first‑come, first‑served basis, so please return your form as soon as you are able to ensure you secure a place for your practice.

Please submit your completed EOI to Jane Derbyshire.
Cervical Screening London Sample Taker Update

A newsletter (PDF) has been published on the cervical screening pathway.
Reducing DNAs toolkit for London now published

As part of the London Learning Improvement Network Outpatient Programme, a new practical resource — the Reducing DNAs Toolkit for London — has been developed in collaboration with clinicians and operational managers to help to reduce missed outpatient appointments. It is now available to download on NHS Futures.

A communications and materials pack has also been published, which you can use to help promote the toolkit.

More information about the toolkit can be found in a document (PDF).
NHS e-Referral Service (e-RS) major incident update

The NHS e-Referral Service (e-RS) has been experiencing ongoing performance issues. NHS England technical teams are continuing to investigate this as a major incident. The issues are affecting the e-RS backend database and may result in:
  • system slowness
  • error messages
  • difficulty or inability to log in, including via smart card.
Technical teams are working to identify the root cause and are putting mitigation measures in place to keep the service running. Users are receiving updates via in-system pop-up messages and incident management communications. 

Practices may wish to implement additional checks and proactively monitor worklists to ensure referrals are successfully transmitted and actioned, particularly suspected cancer referrals and other urgent items such as rapid access chest pain clinic referrals.

If you are experiencing issues within e-RS, please report them directly using the “help within the e-RS system” link in the top-right corner of each screen.

A letter (PDF) contains further details.

Education and training
Free education session on practical Fractional Exhaled Nitric Oxide, and asthma webinar

Free one-hour educational webinar focusing on the practical use of Fractional Exhaled Nitric Oxide (FeNO) testing in asthma diagnosis and management in primary care. 

The session will be delivered by Carol Stonham MBE and is designed to support clinicians with real-world guidance on when and how to use FeNO testing, how to interpret results confidently, and how findings align with current NICE, BTS and SIGN asthma guidance to inform next steps in patient care.

The webinar will include practical case examples, discussion around managing borderline or unexpected results, and a live demonstration of FeNO testing using the NObreath device. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions during the session.

You can register for the webinar on the Zoom registration page.

A certificate of attendance will be provided on request to all attendees. A link to the recorded webinar will also be shared after the event with everyone who has registered, whether or not they are able to attend live.
Primary care systems training

There are various courses available over the next few weeks, including on the NHS and transgender healthcare.  A document (PDF) contains times and booking information.
Webinars on optimising antibiotic prescribing

Join the UK Health Security Agency TARGET Antibiotics toolkit team and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) for two practical webinars designed to support clinicians practising in primary care settings in optimising antibiotic prescribing:
  • from guidance to practice: managing paediatric respiratory tract infections through clinical scenarios - 21 January 2026
  • clinical decision-making for skin infections: from group A strep to insect bites - 17 Match 2026

Find out more and register for the online sessions through the RCGP website.