The pressure on the NHS, in this second wave of COVID, is unprecedented and all parts of the system are feeling this. One of the greatest concerns is the demand on hospitals and pressure on beds with a forecast that demand will exceed supply next week.
As you will have read, two of our CCG Chairs, Dr Jagan John and Dr Anil Mehta, spent Saturday 2/1/21 on two wards at Queen’s hospital reviewing patients in order to support discharge. The feedback from the hospital was fantastic and there is a great opportunity to increase this support which will both further develop relationships between primary and secondary care, provide opportunities for shared learning and most importantly improve hospital flow at the hospital when beds are at a premium. Your hospital needs you!!
GPs would be employed through the BHRUT bank, with a renumeration of £80 per hour and hours can be flexible but need to fit with Trust clinical teams. GPs will need to be currently employed within a BHR CCG GP practice and have a good understanding of local community services and pathways. The GP will be supported by a community matron to help access community services to support discharge.
There are also opportunities for GPs to work with ED to support assessment of medical patients and support discharge from ED.
Dr John has identified that a Senior GP (Reg equiv) will be responsible and provide consultancy as a primary care physician for:
- Reviewing patients on the wards with the on-call teams
- Review admissions with the team and management plans and provide critique
- Review impending discharges with the team providing critique where needed
- Helping to review and co-ordinate /navigate community teams and onward GP review to help facilitate discharge/ be the advocate to discuss with those teams
- Agree onward hospital team referrals internally and use of virtual teams and review plan with hospital teams (including use of community diagnostics/phlebotomy etc.)
- Agree and be clear on the plan for the GP/community on discharge
- Facilitate discharge with agreed support by community teams where feasible
If you are interested please contact k.boettcher@nhs.net and tom.fowler2@nhs.net
How else primary care can support the system Primary care is also being asked to look at what more can be done to support the system over the next few weeks. This includes a request to:
- Increase capacity in GP Access Hubs and Covid-19 Hot Hubs
- Provide support to our local providers (acute, community and GP OOHs)
We are asking GPs who have spare capacity going into January to consider offering to carry out sessions for any of the following:
- GP Federations to staff the extended GP Access Hubs and Hot Hubs (contact your local Federation lead)
- PELC both in the UTC and the GP out of hours service (please contact Sue Elliott at sue.elliott7@nhs.net )
- BHRUT to support A&E and wards (please contact David Amos at david.amos@nhs.net )
In addition please ask your practice nurses if they have capacity and are willing to provide sessions for any of the following:
- PELC both in the UTC noting that there are roles that do not require you to be minor injuries training or a nurse practitioner (please contact Sue Elliott at sue.elliott7@nhs.net )
- BHRUT to support on wards via the staff bank (please contact David Amos at david.amos@nhs.net )
- NELFT to support on community wards via the staff bank (please contact Yvonne.Hood@nelft.nhs.uk )
Please note that preparation or delivery of the Covid-19 vaccination programme should also take priority over this request.