Tamiflu in nursing and care homes
In January the GPC sought legal advice on Public Health England’s (PHE) instructions to prescribe Tamiflu for the prophylaxis of influenza in nursing and care homes where there have been confirmed cases of influenza.
This advice was highlighted in a letter to PHE:
GMS regulations are clear that this service is not included under essential services that practices are required to provide for their registered patients. "Essential Services" are defined in the GMS regulations with reference to regulations 15(3) (5) (6) and (8). Additional work must be commissioned and funded separately as an *Enhanced Service". Examples of these are the influenza vaccination programme and catch up MMR vaccination campaign.
Although PHE disagreed with this view, we would like to re-iterate the GPC’s advice to practices that this work is not covered by their contracts and that if requested, practices should advise PHE (or whoever else requests this) that unless this service is properly commissioned, they will not be providing it in the event of a flu outbreak. The Chief Medical Officer has been informed that practices have been advised of this. We would also advise LMCs to contact their CCGs to alert them to this gap in provision and invite them to commission a service.
Last updated : 14 Oct 2015Pants and socks winter appeal 2016 (24 Nov 2016)
Update 14 December 2016: Thank you to all those who have contributed so far, we were able to take our first donation of pants and socks to the Doctor Hickey Practice...Patient Online November 2016 update (24 Nov 2016)
The contractual requirements for online access have expanded every year since the 2014/15 contract introduced patient online. Current contractual requirements mean that practices should now offer online booking of appointments,...Waltham Forest GP recognised for contribution to international mental health (23 Nov 2016)
The World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) which represents over 550,000 doctors across 150 countries and territories has awarded the WONCA Fellowship to...Londonwide LMCs gains Investors in People Silver award (23 Nov 2016)
On 11 October we were assessed for our Investors in People Silver award, we met the accreditation standards and received confirmation of the award at the start of November. The...Guest blog - Managing COPD with Dr Azhar Saleem (16 Nov 2016)
Dr Azhar Saleem is a sessional GP with an interest in respiratory medicine. He is co-lead of RightBreathe, an inhaler prescribing tool for clinicians and patients. He is currently the...New Patient Online toolkit for GP practices (20 Oct 2016)
The Patient Online (POL) programme has released a toolkit to help GP practices promote online services to patients, specifically ordering repeat prescriptions, booking appointments and viewing medical records. The toolkit...Practice mergers guidance (20 Oct 2016)
More practices are choosing to merge as a way of meeting the workforce and financial challenges that GPs face. We have produced a new guide to help practices through this...October 2016 newsletter (20 Oct 2016)
Staying up to date (19 Oct 2016)
In order to keep you and your practice colleagues up to date with news and developments in primary care, as well as being able to access practical support and advice,...Don’t forget to access our State of Emergency resources (19 Oct 2016)
Earlier this year GPs in London and across the country declared a GP State of Emergency. The aim of our GP State of Emergency campaign is to help GPs...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.
follow us on...
