Archive for year: 2023

23 March 2023: In a previous version of this message we asked community pharmacies to update their email addresses and CPCS status in NHS Profile Manager.

Community pharmacies do not need to update these details in NHS Profile Manager. Referrals from Pharmrefer will automatically be directed to the pharmacies' nhs.net shared mailbox. Please continue to monitor this inbox regularly so referrals are responded to accordingly.

The way Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) referrals are sent by the EMIS PharmRefer product is changing.

From 28 March, community pharmacies that are using CPCS solutions from Cegedim Healthcare, Positive Solutions or Sonar Informatics will no longer be able to access their CPCS referrals through PharmOutcomes. Instead, referrals from GPs and the emergency departments or urgent treatment centre pilot sites using Pharmrefer will arrive into community pharmacies' NHS shared mailbox accounts. If this applies to you, you must tell your staff about the changes and update your standard operating procedures to ensure your NHS shared mailboxes are monitored and referrals are picked up.

Community pharmacies using PharmOutcomes for their CPCS service will continue to receive referrals in their usual way.

The PharmRefer product is also being updated to allow the referrer to select any community pharmacy that is listed as offering CPCS in the Directory of Services.

NHS England has assured 4 IT system suppliers to support the CPCS service. The NHS CPCS IT Buyer's Guide (opens in Word) provides further information about them. They are:

1. Pharmacy Services (Cegedim Healthcare Solutions)

2. PharmOutcomes (Pinnacle Health)

3. HxConsult (Positive Solutions)

4. Sonar

We are working with all our suppliers to develop the functionality that will enable each IT system to integrate CPCS referrals to improve the referral pathways into community pharmacies.

The demand for bandwidth from NHS organisations is increasing by around 30% each year. Tailored support and funding is available from the Gigabit Pathway team to help ensure your organisation gets the right connectivity, when it needs it, in the most efficient way. Find out more or email nhsdigital.future.connectivity@nhs.net.

Join us on 23 March from 2.30 to 3.30pm for a non-technical webinar to learn about NHS England Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and why they are important for health and social care technology. Register for the webinar.

The NHS Cloud Community is now open and welcoming new members. It provides a new way to support cloud adoption across the NHS by allowing all NHS organisations to:

• connect with like-minded peers in different phases of their cloud journey
• benefit from peer support and expertise
• view case studies, supplier presentations and other helpful materials from colleagues

Join the community (FutureNHS account needed).

Read how moving to the cloud provided Kettering General Hospital with a more flexible way to procure their infrastructure and scale up services to meet demand, as well as help to increase stability.

Support for switching on access to GP records

1 in 5 practices have now given their patients online access to new entries in their patient records.

You can join NHS England and the Patients Association on 16 March (12-1pm) for a webinar about the patient impact of online access.

We offer training sessions, videos, and detailed guidance to help everybody in your practice understand this change and get ready for it. There is also a toolkit of materials to explain the new access to patients, including a patient-facing video about online access. 

Further information about Register with a GP surgery service

Recent improvements to the Register with a GP surgery online service include:

• revised alcohol and smoking questions to improve patient information at point of registration
• an option for patients to nominate their chosen pharmacy

We are planning to add more features and integrate the service with the NHS App later this year. See our roadmap for more details.

The Register with a GP surgery service is now live with almost 650 practices and has been shown to reduce the time it takes administrative staff to register new patients by up to 15 minutes per registration.

GP practices can begin using the service by self-enrolling or by contacting the dedicated support team. Further information can also be found on the resource hub.

Help available to improve your future connectivity

Demand for internet (including HSCN) bandwidth is increasing by 30% a year. It is important you take action so your practice can continue to support the provision of remote care and monitoring in the future and upgrade services as part of digital transformation.

Tailored support and funding is available from the Gigabit Pathway team to help general practices get the right connectivity in the most efficient way. Find out more or email contact your integrated care board IT lead.

Help us improve the NHS App - patients’ test results

We are looking to understand more about the queries the practice receives from patients regarding test results and how or if patients are notified of their test results. 

To help out with this project, we would like GP staff who, as part of their work, either answer patient queries regarding test results and/or notify patients of their test results, please fill in this 5-minute anonymous survey. 

Event: NHS ConfedExpo 2023

This year’s NHS ConfedExpo will take place on 14 and 15 June at Manchester Central. The event will bring together health and care leaders and their teams from across the sector for 2 days of inspiring sessions, shared learning, and valuable networking opportunities.     

NHS, local authority and wider public sector staff are eligible for a free ticket. Book your pass and follow @ConfedExpo on Twitter for the latest updates.

New e-RS data dashboard enters beta phase

A new dashboard that provides NHS e-Referral Service (e-RS) summary statistics and performance metrics on referrals and advice and guidance requests is now available.

The e-RS provider dashboard, which will help NHS teams drive service improvements, gives users access to weekly data from e-RS. The initial beta release allows data to be cut by provider, specialty and clinic types, and allows benchmarking between provider organisations, regions and Integrated Care Boards (ICBs).

The 3-part beta phase will see up to 200 users given access to the dashboard so they can provide feedback and suggest improvements prior to its full release.

Access to the dashboard is open to clinicians, information analysts and other operational and administration staff. Request access to the dashboard.

News: Milestone for the ‘Our Future Health’ research programme

Our NHS DigiTrials service is supporting recruitment into the Our Future Health, which is the largest-ever UK health research programme. 

Millions of people from different backgrounds from all areas of the UK are being invited to participate and provide information about their health and lifestyles. This will create an incredibly detailed view of population health in the UK to support discovery and testing of more effective approaches to prevention, earlier detection and treatment of diseases.

To date, more than 100,000 appointments have been booked by volunteer participants. Find out how we invite people to take part. 

Event: NHS ConfedExpo 2023

This year’s NHS ConfedExpo will take place on 14 and 15 June at Manchester Central. The event will bring together health and care leaders and their teams from across the sector for 2 days of inspiring sessions, shared learning, and valuable networking opportunities.     

NHS, local authority and wider public sector staff are eligible for a free ticket. Book your pass and follow @ConfedExpo on Twitter for the latest updates.

One giant step for secure data access

Michael Chapman, Director of Research and Clinical Trials at NHS Digital, talks about our new Secure Data Environment and explains how it is making research into life-saving treatments easier and faster.

Why we’re getting our data teams to RAP

Reproducible analytical pipelines (RAP) help ensure all published statistics meet the highest standards of transparency and reproducibility. Sam Hollings and Alistair Bullward in our data science team share their insights on adopting RAP and give advice to those starting out.

What is public benefit?

Dr Nicola Byrne, the National Data Guardian, outlines new guidance to support better public benefit evaluations, aimed at both people who use data and those who are custodians of it.

A new way to find patients

Technical architect Darren Hickling describes our role in developing a platform to identify the highest risk COVID-19 patients so they could receive life-saving antiviral treatments. 

Our statistical publications, dashboards and open datasets enable important insight across health and care, informing national and local decisions.