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 to 31 March 2027
• COVID-19 vaccination of newly identified immunosuppressed individuals (aged 6 months and over) will continue from 1 February 2026
• reduction in wait times for first consultation in the general surgery and colorectal at The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• RM Partners launch bowel cancer screening awareness and pan London cervical cancer elimination comms campaigns
• Cancer SMART (Severe Mental Illness Access and Rapid Treatment)
• free workshop for residents on high blood pressure and long-term conditions.

Education and training:

• transgender healthcare training sessions
• Primary Care Systems Training Team schedule for February 2026.

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 to 31 March 2027

We have already written to you to advise that the egneral 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.

• 2026/27 COVID-19 and adult influenza vaccination service specification now published for general practice
• service specification: General practice seasonal vaccination services – COVID-19 and influenza vaccination enhanced services

Further to this communication, we have received few clarifying queries from GP practices. As such, please refer to the sign up guidance (PDF) confirming the necessary actions practices need to take depending on what they are intending to sign-up to and deliver during 2026-27.

COVID-19 vaccination of newly identified immunosuppressed individuals (aged 6 months and over) will continue from 1 February 2026

The Autumn/Winter 2025 campaign to all the eligible cohorts for a COVID-19 vaccination will end on 31 January 2026 (i.e. the last day of vaccination is 31 January 2026).

This means no COVID-19 vaccinations are permitted from 1 February 2026 (even if there is viable vaccine stock on site), unless the site is part of the inter-seasonal campaign.

Referral pathway at The Willesden Medical Centre in Brent

In north west London, access for a COVID-19 vaccination outside of the seasonal campaign (i.e. from 1 February 2026) will be available at The Willesden Medical Centre (on-site vaccination on Mondays only) in Brent. Please see referral pathway details in a document (PDF).

Reduction in wait times for first consultation in the general surgery and colorectal at The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

There has been a recent reduction in wait times for first consultation in the general surgery and colorectal at The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Our current wait time for first appointment is 2 - 3 weeks.

Since September 2025, our department has experienced a reduction in patient referrals. Despite this, we are pleased to report that our teams have implemented several innovative service improvements which have resulted in reduced waiting times for first outpatient appointments across all clinics, routine, urgent and 2ww clinics. In addition, with our improved pathways to timely access to our diagnostic pathways, our teams are able to provide a highly personalised treatment plans.

Thanks to streamlined triage processes, focused clinical pathways, and optimisation of available outpatient clinic sessions, we are currently able to offer shorter waits for new appointments compared with previous months which you may have noticed on our Electronic Referral System.

Given this improved position, we kindly ask that you continue in referring patients that require access to our general surgery and colorectal services at the hospital. This will allow us to ensure our patients in the local Hillingdon and neighbouring boroughs can continue receiving timely, high‑quality surgical care close to home. 

If you have any questions regarding referral criteria, clinical pathways, or capacity, please do not hesitate to contact our team directly via email.

RM Partners launch bowel cancer screening awareness and pan London cervical cancer elimination comms campaigns

These campaigns are now live across north west and south west London.

Please find information and resources below:

• bowel cancer screening campaign: Don't Wipe Away The Signs - bowel cancer awareness
• pan London cervical cancer elimination campaign
• Tik Tok videos.

Cancer SMART (Severe Mental Illness Access and Rapid Treatment)  

Cancer SMART is an innovative pilot service funded by RM Partners to tackle mental health inequalities in cancer diagnostics and treatment. The multi-disciplinary team at St George’s Hospital is working to:

• proactively identify patients with severe mental illness who are referred on 2ww cancer pathways
• align hospital, primary care and community mental health teams to collaboratively support patients accessing diagnostics and treatment
• provide advice and consultation to clinicians regarding engagement and reducing barriers for these patients
• directly engage with patients and carers to facilitate access
• design an educational strategy to upskill staff across hospital, primary care and community mental health settings in supporting with these patients.

Find out about how you can help and what you can get out of it (PDF document).

Free workshop for residents on high blood pressure and long-term conditions

A workshop to support north west London residents will take place in White City, Hammersmith & Fulham. 

The in-person event takes place on 30 January 2026, 2 - 5.30pm. Please display this updated poster (PDF), which has been updated to promote a £20 gift voucher for attendance. The poster contains information about the session and sign-up details.

Transgender healthcare training sessions
 
Dr Joanna Lovett will be hosting transgender training sessions for clinical and non-clinical staff. This training will help to improve primary care staff's knowledge and understanding of gender dysphoria, transgender and non-binary healthcare. The sessions are split into two 90 minute sessions (both sessions are mandatory).

Find further information and book on the relevant link below:

• transgender healthcare for clinical staff (sessions in February, April and June)
• transgender healthcare for non-clinical staff (sessions in March, May and July).

Primary Care Systems Training Team schedule for February 2026

The Primary Care Training Team offers a wide range of training courses on the North West London Learning Hub, take a look at the primary care systems training schedule for February 2026 for more details.