Friday 8 May Bank Holiday opening
With just over a week to go there still remains a lack of clarity on funding of staff payments and costs. Until clear, we continue to advise you to keep an account of all additional costs associated with these bank holidays. We still expect the BMA to negotiate that the affected Bank Holidays to be restored in due course and will press for this. Under the emergency legislation (SI 351, 2020; Part 4, S14) NHS England has deemed them to be normal working days,
The key message from NHS England is that GP practices should open, but agree with their CCG in advance the level of the service needed and the staff cover required, with the possibility of PCN level cover as an alternative in view of anticipated demand. They suggest using your experience of the Easter bank holidays to ensure you have the right level of cover needed for your area.
In preparing for this we suggest you:
- Review your patient demand levels over the two Easter bank holidays and think about whether all staff were required to be available.
- Consider whether scaling down provision might be appropriate, always ensuring that you meet the reasonable needs of your patients.
- Consider whether a different staff skill mix might be suitable on that day.
- Have a discussion with your PCN colleagues and explore the option of cross cover between practices or using local access centres if available. Working collaboratively with your local colleagues may mean that not all practices within your PCN may need to be open throughout the day.
- While considering all available options, please ensure that you discuss your plans with your CCG and get their agreement in advance of putting your arrangements in place. If service provision is going to be different to what is normally expected, please ensure you communicate this clearly to your patients to manage their expectations.
As soon as any further guidance is available, from NHS England or the BMA, we will share it with you.
Last updated : 29 Apr 2020The M Word issue 6 - Dr Michelle Drage's latest personal briefing for practices on NHS reforms (16 Dec 2011)
I have 3 updates for you: The Health and Social Care Bill, 1 year on GP Primary Medical...The M Word issue 5 - Dr Michelle Drage's latest personal briefing for practices on NHS reforms (10 Oct 2011)
Here's the latest update on what has and what has not been going on over the last few weeks, and what is likely to happen over the Autumn. I...The M Word issue 4 - Dr Drage's briefing on the NHS reforms (15 Jun 2011)
The Day After... The Politics The Real World Michelle’s 3 step guide (definitely not a toolkit) to QIPP and GRIP Dr Michelle Drage FRCGPCEO Londonwide...The M Word issue 3 - Dr Michelle Drage's briefing on NHS reforms (07 Jun 2011)
I thought I’d share three of my more serious thoughts to do with Providing General Practice and NOT commissioning (mostly!) The new transitional management landscape in London Our...GPC news June 2011 (01 Jun 2011)
Download latest edition of GPC news here.The M Word issue 2 - Dr Michelle Drage's personal briefing for practices on NHS reforms (14 Apr 2011)
In issue 1 I set out to make some sense of the language and jargon of the new NHS world and give you some not-so-subliminal messages about what we...The M Word issue 1 (10 Apr 2011)
Dr Michelle Drage's personal briefing for practices on NHS reforms. This is the first in my personal series of briefings which will provide commentary and updates on key issues facing...GPC news October 2009 (01 Oct 2009)
Download the latest edition of GPC news here.Guidance
We provide expert guidance for practices in our guidance section, as well as an archive of other materials you may find useful.
GP Support
Contact our GP Support team if you need help or advice.
The team provide professional and pastoral support to GPs and practice teams on a broad range of issues.