Extended hours DES update
The 2017/18 changes to the GP contract included the condition that meant practices who regularly close for a half day, on a weekly basis, will not ordinarily qualify to deliver the Extended Hours DES.
The contract was not specific on what ‘open’ means. Ros Roughton, NHS England’s Director of NHS Commissioning told MPs on 10 March her view was that services which met the level of ‘reasonable needs’ of patients were:
“...[as a patient] you should be able to phone your practice and book an appointment, pick up a prescription, drop off a specimen. If results come into the practice that require urgent attention there should be someone there to pick that up...”
Londonwide LMCs has further discussed this with NHS England and conclude that in order to satisfy the requirements of being 'open' and qualify to deliver the Extended Hours DES, practices should ensure that:
- the practice door should be open during core hours, ie, 8:00am-6:30pm
- a receptionist should be on duty
- the telephone should be answered by a person in the practice
- as a minimum, the patient should be able to book appointments at reception or by phone, collect and drop in repeat prescription requests/insurance forms/specimens and ask about test results
- a doctor should be contactable for urgent advice. This does not necessarily mean that the doctor must be at the practice premises but that he/she must be contactable to provide the patient with urgent advice. The clinical decision may be to advise the patient on appropriate management of their condition, and to determine when and where the patient should be appropriately seen
As was originally agreed between NHS England and the General Practitioners Committee, if a practice wants to participate in the extended hours DES but felt it necessary to close for half a day, their case would be looked at on its own merits, eg, a branch practice may not need to be kept open.
If you have any queries about this, please contact gpsupport@lmc.org.uk.
Last updated : 24 Oct 2017Londonwide LMCs conference 2019 round-up (19 Mar 2019)
On 12 March 2019 we hosted our annual conference – titled “All Together Now” - at the Kia Oval. The day was a great success with an array of guest...New ICO advice on handling Subject Access Requests (19 Mar 2019)
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) have recently released a blog containing further advice for GPs and practices on the right of access for patients, commonly called Subject Access Requests (SARs)....Londonwide LMCs’ board changes (15 Mar 2019)
Following elections we would like to welcome Dr Anouska Hari (NW) and Dr Naureen Bhatti (NC/NE) to the board. Dr Marek Jarzembowski (South), Dr Robbie Bunt (NC/NE), Dr Simon Parton...New BMA locum template terms and conditions (13 Mar 2019)
The BMA GPC and sessional subcommittee have jointly produced model terms of engagement for locum GPs, which they recommend both practices and locums should proactively adopt. It should be noted that...Safeguarding Children and Adults L2 - Wednesday 22 May 2019 - places still available (27 Feb 2019)
...Londonwide LMCs' February 2019 Newsletter (20 Feb 2019)
...Tips of the month February 2019 (19 Feb 2019)
We provide weekly tips based on common queries which come through to us from London GPs and practice teams. These are shared via social media and collated for...QOF business rules coding issues – update for practice teams (19 Feb 2019)
Please note that no action is currently needed by practices on this matter, but you should read the information carefully. Following the introduction of the SNOMED-CT coding in 2018/19, NHS...Type 2 opt-outs replaced by the national data opt-out (19 Feb 2019)
Type 2 opt-outs have been replaced by the national data opt-out so practices must no longer use the type 2 opt-out code to record a patient's opt-out choice as it...The Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) – further guidance now available (19 Feb 2019)
The The Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) replaced the Information Governance toolkit from April 2018. The DSPT is an online self-assessment toolkit that has to be used by all...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.