The 39 practices in Wandsworth are our shareholders but by working closely with our partner providers we also support the wider community. These are some of the things we have been doing and get involved with:
What's been going on
Reviews for housebound patients on oxygen
BHCIC has worked with South West London CCG to support CLCH to deliver home oxygen reviews for 2021/22 through the Home Oxygen Service Assessment and Review (HOSAR).
CLCH identified 241 patients receiving home oxygen and began working through the reviews in May 2021 with this work due to be completed by January 2022. The reviews have ensured that patients are utilising home oxygen appropriately, at the correct level to meet their clinical needs and have been able to flag and resolve any safety issues relating to the use of oxygen in the home environment such as poor storage, the risks of smoking and poor ventilation.
Working with Generate
Generate delivered several webinars to non-clinical staff across South West London to provide support and advice when supporting patients with learning difficulties.
They helped to ensure patients attended vaccination clinics, supporting the patients and clinics and also started working with practices across Wandsworth delivering the out of hours cervical screening clinics.
Generate also:
- Created an accessible guide to having an annual health check available to all GP practices
- Created bespoke health check invite letters
- Supported various GP practices
Enhanced Primary Care Hub – Queen Mary’s Hospital
The 8am to 8pm GP and the Emergency Practitioner (EP) service went live on 1st December 2020 under the Enhanced Primary Care Hub at the Queen Mary's Hospital .
The Emergency Practitioner (EP) service began a pilot in April 2021 taking calls from patients to book a face-to-face appointment for a minor injury or illness. The patient would be able to speak to an EP and depending on what was most appropriate either redirected appropriately or booked into an appointment.
Since July 2021 additional hub appointments have been provided at Queen Mary's Hospital and Bedford Hill Family Practice ‘in hours’ (usually Mon-Fri, 9am - 5pm) and ‘out of hours’ (any time outside of the usual 'in hours') to support primary care during this challenging time.
Queen Mary's Hospital provided an additional 20 appointments every Tuesday and Thursday morning. Bedford Hill Family Practice provided an additional 32 appointments every Saturday. The additional appointments were very popular and were almost always completely booked from July 2021 to October 21. These additional appointments will be available until 31 March 2022.
In August 2021 the Queen Mary's Hospital upgraded their IT operating platform which gave hub GPs better access to information and more options to be able to treat patients without them having to go back to their own GP . The IT upgrades mean Wandsworth patients can also be directly booked to see a local GP or EP at the hubs through NHS 111.
Providing practices with the right equipment
During the pandemic Spirometry activity was suspended nationally. In March 2021 BHCIC asked the practices about the equipment they had to carry out spirometry tests. Approximately 50% of GP practices had access to the Bluetooth Spirometry equipment.
In May 2021 BHCIC purchased additional Bluetooth Spirometry equipment to ensure all Wandsworth GP practices had the right equipment to support the recovery of Spirometry testing in primary care.
Our response to Covid
Regular PPE deliveries
Protective Personal Equipment stock control and delivery was managed centrally by BHCIC from April to November 2020. Approximately 8,000 pieces of PPE were distributed to practices.
Stock was received via various routes – from central supply and other providers – schools, colleges, DIY stores, national retail & community organisations who not only donated but manufactured products to support the Covid-19 response in Wandsworth. The programme was supported by volunteers, BHCIC colleagues and agency personnel providing deliveries to all Wandsworth GP practices and BHCIC stakeholders including Age UK, Marie Curie and CLCH .
Covid medication pathway
In collaboration with Pearl Pharmacy we developed an innovative pathway allowing access to a pre-set pack of symptom control
medications for patients dying with or from Covid. Medication packs could be home delivered within 2 hours.
SPO2 service
SPO2 devices measure the amount of oxygen in your blood. We introduced a home drop off and wait service for housebound patients so they could safely monitor their oxygen levels and let their GP know if there were any problems immediately.
The 'hot car' service
The mobile home visiting service (hot car service) was available from end of April 2020 to the end of May 2020. This enabled patients who had suspected Covid symptoms to be seen at home by a healthcare professional.
Supporting staff
We delivered a Covid anti-body testing clinic for social and care home staff.
Supporting 111 and London Ambulance Service
From Jan 2021 to March 2021 we helped deliver the Wandsworth weekend telephone clinical assessment (triage) and the Bridge Lane Hot Hub services with local GPs, nurses and healthcare assistants to relieve pressure on NHS 111 and the London Ambulance Service during the second peak of the pandemic.
This meant patients could speak to someone locally and could arrange an emergency appointment if needed.
Covid vaccination sites
Several PCN sites went live with the start of their vaccine roll out in December 2020 and early January 2021.
BHCIC supported a number of PCN sites initially with the excellent bank of wonderful people who came forward to volunteer to be marshals. We had a staggering response with over 400 people registering their interest. The Federation continued to support PCN vaccination sites and the scores of dedicated and committed volunteers.
The feedback from PCN vaccination sites and volunteers that contributed to the success of the on-going programme has been incredible.
