OCCG Weekly Bulletin
Wednesday 8 July 2015
Included in this bulletin:




IMPORTANT – Change to District
Nurses Hours from 15 July 2015
PLEASE NOTE: Care Quality
Commission Inspections in
Oxfordshire GP Practices
Heart Failure Diagnosis and Initial
Management
Direct Access Community Based
Echocardiography



Introduction of Criteria to
Determine Patient’s Admission to
Community Hospital
Global Diagnostics
For Information – Telegraph News
Story re. NHS 111
Clinical Policies & Procedures
PLEASE NOTE IMPORTANT – Change to District Nurses Hours from Wednesday 15
July 2015:
FROM 15 JULY THE CORE DISTRICT NURSING SERVICE WILL STOP AT 4PM
From Wednesday 15 July, patients in need of urgent support between 4pm and 6.30pm in four localities
(West, City, South East and South West) will be cared for by Hospital @ Home staff, a nursing service
provided by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust.
In the North and North East localities, district nurses will provide cover from 4 to 6.30pm, operating a
skeleton service to respond to urgent cases only, while at weekends the Out of Hours service will provide
support for urgent calls between 4 and 6.30pm.
Between 4 and 6.30pm, professionals across the county who want to request urgent district nurse visits
should contact SPA (01865 903 750) who will ensure that the request is picked up.
Patients should continue to ring the team phone where they will be directed to ring a single number which
will be answered by Oxfordshire Health Hospital @ Home.
The change to district nursing hours will be reviewed in three months. Practices should share feedback or
any issues to the CCG via Datix.
More Information and frequently asked questions can be found here
PLEASE NOTE: Care Quality Commission Inspections in Oxfordshire GP Practices:
The Care Quality Commission has alerted OCCG that Oxfordshire has been selected for GP practice
inspections in August/September 2015. If practice staff would like additional support they can;
 Look at the CQC page on the OCCG intranet for advice and resources first
 Approach the Quality Team Representative at you locality meeting
 Or email Sula.wiltshire@oxfordshireccg.nhs.uk or Tony.Summersgill@oxfordshireccg.nhs.uk
Heart Failure Diagnosis and Initial Management:
For suspected Heart Failure needing echocardiographic evaluation and specialist input, there is a new Heart
Failure, Urgent and Routine Diagnosis which goes to one destination (heartfailure.oxford@nhs.net or Fax
01865 740409) where it is triaged by heart failure clinicians for:
 urgency (within 2 weeks, or 6 weeks);
 best venue for appointment (OUH or community)
 most appropriate personnel (Cardiologist or GPwSI).
The new referral proforma is available on DXS and OCCG Intranet please click here.
Direct Access Community based Echocardiography:
Direct access Echocardiograms for other clinical indications are accessed with a different proforma, sent
direct to Echotech, available on DXS and OCCG Intranet here. Clinics are held in Witney, Wallingford,
Abingdon, Bicester and Banbury and reports include advice on cardiological referral, where appropriate.
Introduction of Criteria to Determine Patient’s Admission to Community Hospital:
New criteria are now in place to ensure that patients admitted to community hospitals are those
who will benefit most. The change is unlikely to create any additional work for primary health care teams
in the community. To find out more, please click on a briefing here
Global Diagnostics – change of contact details:
Contact details to book a community ultrasound for patients with Global Diagnostics will change
from Monday 13 July, 2015. This affects ultrasound referrals for the following locations; Wantage
Health Centre, Wallingford Community Hospital, Victoria House Surgery Bicester, West Bar
Surgery Banbury and Windrush Medical Practice.
Please click here for details.
Return to top
Learning and Development
For Information – Telegraph News Story re. NHS 111:
Many colleagues will have seen news reports originating from an undercover investigation by the Daily
Telegraph this week. The reporting suggests that the NHS 111 service operated by South Central
Ambulance Service (SCAS) has inappropriately refused to dispatch ambulances. The Telegraph claim to
have exposed ‘dubious methods of ill service’.
We want to reassure all NHS staff that SCAS and local commissioners are treating the allegations extremely
seriously and as a result of this, SCAS is treating this under their whistleblowing policy and immediately
launched an internal investigation. Commissioners met with the executive and clinical teams of SCAS today
(2nd July) to gain assurance on what the Trust is doing in response to the Telegraph reports and to confirm
all calls handled by the undercover journalist are audited for outcomes and clinical issues.
Meanwhile, it is important to recognise that the reports do not indicate a systemic fault. As NHS England
has pointed out; “NHS 111 provides an incredibly robust service in the face of huge demand and has an
exemplary safety record.” Both SCAS and NHS England have pointed out to the Telegraph that it is entirely
correct for call handlers to pass calls to clinicians when the call is complex.
If you are asked for comment on this story by the media please refer them instead to the NHS England
press office. The telephone number to give is 0113 825 0958 or 0113 825 0959
The Daily Telegraph article can be found online here http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/nhs/11701666/How-NHS-111-helpline-refuses-to-send-outambulances.html
To give us your feedback please email: OCCG.GPbulletin@nhs.net
Return to top