GP practices should be working with complex patients to ‘actively avoid hospital admissions’ this winter, according to NHS England.
In a letter to ICBs and trusts, NHSE set out the actions necessary to ensure delivery of ‘safe, dignified and high-quality care’ this winter, which must be an ‘overriding priority’.
There was a particular focus on the winter vaccination campaign, with NHS England urging providers to ‘make every possible effort’ to boost vaccine uptake among patient-facing staff.
The letter also stressed the importance of promoting the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine, which from this month practices began administering to over-75s and pregnant women as an essential service under the GP contract.
‘This is a year-round offer but its promotion ahead of winter by health professionals is vital, particularly to those at highest risk,’ NHSE said.
NHS England also urged local commissioners to take a ‘whole-system approach to managing winter demand’.
The letter asked ICBs to ‘ensure the proactive identification and management of people with complex needs and long-term conditions so care is optimised ahead of winter’.
‘Primary care and community services should be working with these patients to actively avoid hospital admissions,’ NHSE added.
These patients should also be offered ‘alternatives to hospital attendance’ as they may be ‘better served with a community response’.
NHS England told ICBs and trusts to continue delivering on the urgent care recovery plan, which was first published last year and was met with criticism from the BMA who warned that it would push workload onto already-overworked GPs.
The public spending watchdog , the National Audit Office, later cast doubt on NHSE’s ability to deliver its recovery plan, stating what it would be a ‘significant challenge’ based on current trends.
In its letter this week, NHSE highlighted the ‘tight financial environment’ across the NHS, and recognised that despite improvements made so far, ‘far too many patients will face longer waits at certain points in the pathway than are acceptable’.
This article was first published by our sister title Pulse
