Bulletin 09.06.2015
Annual Complaints Data Deadline, Wednesday 8 July
NHS England has written to GP practices asking them to submit data on written complaints received by the practice between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2015. This is an NHS-wide data collection and asks practices to submit numbers of written complaints made by patients (or others acting on their behalf) about GP services. The figures to be submitted are total numbers of complaints by service area and subject of complaint, and the number of these that were upheld. No personal confidential data is included in this collection. The questions are unchanged from previous years’ collections, but will now be collected through the Primary Care Web Tool. NHS England has stated this is a statutory requirement under The Local Authority Social Services and NHS Complaints (England) Regulations 2009, and practices are therefore advised to complete the return. The deadline for submission is Wednesday 8 July 2015. This letter was sent to practices, together with this guidance on completion.
Reminder, Dridex Malware Attack Remedial Action
ONLY PRACTICES WHOM ARE ALREADY IN RECEIPT OF CORRESPONDENCE FROM THE HSCIC ON THIS SUBJECT NEED TO TAKE ACTION. The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) wrote to a number of GP practices in March and April that had been identified as being infected with malicious software known as ‘Dridex’, which inflects systems via macro-enabled documents and .xml attachments sent by email. The letter from HSCIC contained advice on the actions that need to be taken by practices against this malicious software, and requested that practices confirm with the HSCIC that the necessary actions had been taken. Of 1200 GP practices affected, only around 500 so far have provided such confirmation to the HSCIC. Please ensure you have taken the important actions required – we are advised they are relatively straightforward and do not require the installation of software. Where practices require further advice, they can contact the HSCIC via enquiries@hscic.gov.uk quoting ‘cyber incident’ in the subject line or by calling 0300 303 5678, selecting option 2.
Overseas Visitors, Updated GPC Guidance
The Department of Health has recently issued guidance on implementing the overseas visitor hospital charging regulations 2015. This BMA guidance on this and the impact on primary care has been updated accordingly.