Patient Online Access
The Patient Online Programme is a NHS England National Programme designed to guide and support GP Practices to meet the contractual obligations outlined in the 2015/16 National Health Services (GMS Contract and PMS Agreement) Amendment Regulations 2015. As detailed in last year’s contract, Practices must continue to promote on line services and offer online access to patients who request access to book, cancel and amend appointments, order of repeat prescriptions and access summary information (allergies, adverse reactions, medication). From April 2015, practice must also provide patients with online access to their coded records, and ensure that the appointments available online meet the demand of their patients. Patient Online are continuing to work in partnership with the BMA and RCGP and have developed guidance and materials to support GP Practices in relation to Patient Online Access. This guidance includes registration, ID verification, proxy, coercion and children’s online access. Additionally, the programme have developed guides  in relation to increasing online Transactional Services and Detailed Coded Record Access that will be available soon. To date Practice staff have attended User Groups organised by NECS and facilitated by the Patient Online Team, evaluations completed by attendees of these groups have been extremely positive, therefore, it is planned that further sessions will be arranged for staff who were unable to attend. If you would like further information please do not hesitate to contact Kay Renwick, Implementation Lead, kay.renwick@nhs.net , or Fiona McDonald, Digital Clinical Champion, fiona.mcdonald10@nhs.net .

CQC Information Security Review
GPC has been informed by the CQC of a small number of GP practice visits taking place soon, as part of a review of NHS organisations and their handling of confidential patient information. The CQC has been asked to undertake this review by the Secretary of State for Health. A randomly selected sample of 15 GP practices in England have received a letter from CQC with details of their forthcoming visit. The practice will be visited by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) on behalf of CQC for a day, before the end of November. The HSCIC will be talking to staff, reviewing documentation and systems, and where appropriate, reviewing relevant documentary evidence referenced within the most recently submitted Information Governance Toolkit assessment. Visits are also being undertaken at dental practices and NHS acute trusts. The CQC has confirmed these visits will not lead to a rating, but will gather evidence on the current status of information security in NHS organisations. CQC will be publishing a report in January 2016 – the report will not attribute any findings to individual organisations.

Inadequate Demand for 7 day Opening, PM Challenge Fund Evaluation
The findings from the independent evaluation  of the prime minister’s Challenge Fund pilot, (now called the GP Access Fund), showed poor demand for routine weekend appointments on Sundays, and on Saturday afternoons, resulting in precious NHS resources being wasted on keeping near-empty practices open and staffed. GPC have reiterated the significantly higher costs of providing care during these extended hours, compared to routine GP practice appointments during the week. While some areas showed a slight decrease in minor illness attendances at emergency departments, there was no reduction in hospital admissions, and any cost saving would need to be balanced by the considerable expense of running these pilots. It was of note that many pilots had ceased full weekend opening, and that two thirds of the pilot funds were instead used to explore use of technology and new ways of collaborative working to manage workload.

GP Electronic Annual Practice Declaration
Once again it is time for the GP electronic Annual Practice Declaration (eDEC). The 2015/16 eDEC is open for submission until Wednesday 16th of December 2015 and all GP practices are contractually required to submit their eDEC electronically through the primary care website. NHS England provided this letter  to all practices with further information. Please ensure you double check all pre-populated information and respond to the mandatory questions no later than 16 December.