A Note from Chair - Dr Johnny Burns
Colleagues,
As we approach summer i just wanted to update on what has been happening within Causeway Federation. Unfortunately General Practice continues to be under immense pressure, there have been many Practice closures which is unpredicted. Whilst this has not directly impacted our area as yet it all has a negative effect, be assured we will continue to endeavour to support our Practices in whatever way we possibly can.
The fiscal challenges being experienced within NHS in NI have hindered any real progress recently. We continue to work on projects outlined in the last newsletter an will keep you informed as and when we make progress. I am meeting with the Trust next this week to discuss some of these.
I hope you are all doing well and get some well deserved time off over the summer!
As Always, If you have any queries, suggestions, potential projects or ideas for the Causeway GP Federation please do not hesitate to contact the Federation Support Unit on info@northernfsu.co.uk
Dr J Burns.
MDT Senior Mental Health Practitioners
The Senior Mental Health Practitioners continue to aim to provide a high standard of accessible, expert service, within the GP Practices in Causeway GP Federation.
We continue to have contact with an average of 56 patients a week, either face to face or by telephone, and to offer approximately 60% of our appointments as initial assessment/new patient slots.
In the last quarter we have: -
✅Completed inhouse sessions for practice staff re ‘our role, referral processes and interventions’.
✅Completed the Decider Programme training, CBT based approach assisting
young people and adults to become more emotionally resilient.
✅Established an exclusive referral pathway to The Wave Project, a mental health surf programme for young people.
✅Hold 4 public events focused on Mental Health & Wellbeing improvement.
✅Assisted 3 local secondary schools to establish their Wellbeing Champion Ambassador programmes.
✅Started training on Trauma Informed Practice.
✅Working closely with the Causeway Coast and Glens Council and the MDT SWs to provide services for refugees and asylum seekers
✅ Participating in steering group for Gabapentinoid Reduction Service
✅Promoting lifestyle prescribing and self-management with focus on nature connections and positive lifestyle changes with local organisation Tree and Tide.
We have also welcomed our newest member of the team, Siobhan Bradley who will be covering a maternity leave for us in her initial year with the team!
The team has also been involved in various fundraising events raising awareness of
mental wellbeing and in linking in with local community and voluntary organisations.
We would welcome any further suggestions as to how we could improve the service.
General Practice Pharmacists
Five of the GPP team completed their Independent Prescribing qualification at the end of April 👏🏼
Congratulations!! -
Geraldine McGarry
Hannah Forbes
Hannah McCausland
Jenny Chartres
Natasha O’Neil
It took a lot of dedication and hard work to get over the finish line but hopefully it will be worthwhile whenever they start using their qualification to care for patients within their area of expertise. It is great to see some of our GPPs already running long-term disease management clinics including asthma, COPD, hypertension, contraception and type 2 diabetes.
Thank you to all of the practices who have already embraced the concept of pharmacist-led clinics. This bit of variety and chance to see patients face to face has greatly improved job satisfaction for those involved. For those practices who have not yet ventured down this path, I strongly encourage you to give it a go. Your practice, pharmacist and patients will definitely reap the benefits!
Congratulations also to Sharon Johnston, one of our new GPPs, who has successfully completed the first stage of her Foundation Programme!
Good luck to Sarah McBride and Sarah Laverty who have just started their GPP foundation training at the start of March!
One final congratulations to Karina Duffy on the birth of her beautiful baby Ailbhe on 28th February 2023! We wish Karina and her family all the very best!
PBL - Federation Education
PBL continues to run both as external days and in house arrangements .
Our next day is Wednesday September 20th at the Lodge Hotel with 2 more dates before March 2024.
With our MDTs along with administrative staff GPS and nursing staff relevant training can become complex and we would love input from leads and practice managers on any training they feel would be useful. It is wonderful to see such attendance as we continually attempt to make learning days as relevant and interesting as possible.
MDT - First Contact Physiotherapists
First Contact Physiotherapy – Suzanne Kennedy Consultant Physiotherapist
I would like to welcome two new staff members to our First Contact Physiotherapy team in the Causeway Federation.
Colin Brennan started in March 2023 in the Dalriada Practice and Vikki Baird who started in April will be working in both Riverside and Fannin Practice. They have both settled in well and will be a great asset to our team in primary care.
👶🏼 CONGRATS!! We would like to welcome our first FCP baby and extend our congratulations to Shauna Cloughley on the birth of her lovely daughter Maggie who arrived a few weeks early on 22nd March 2023.
A few staff members attended the regional Spinal orthopaedic conference on 10th May 2023 to hear the latest on the most up-to-date clinical and research evidence in the differential diagnosis, assessment and management of spinal pain. It was very relevant and beneficial providing an improved clinical understanding of when to refer on, and to whom from psychology, oncology, neurosurgery, neurology, and orthopaedic surgery.
Clare Doherty, Shannon Graham and Vikki Baird have embarked on their joint injection training and have completed the first part in March 23 and will complete the second part in October 2023 with a theory and practical examination to look forward too.
We will be working with the new pharmacist Kirsty McClintock who is employed to set up a Pain Medication Deprescribing Service. This will initially address deprescribing of gabapentinoids in primary care, and will involve initiating reduction programmes for patients in GP practices, and supporting GP practices to continue these programmes going forward.
The First Contact Physio’s linked in with the Health and Wellbeing Team of the NHSCT and local communities to identify patients that would benefit from Strength and Balance exercise programmes, these were aimed for over 70s to help reduce risk of falls. These classes were run in Loughguile, Dunloy and Rasharkin.
The first regional First Contact Physiotherapy Networking Event will take place on 15th June 2023. This will provide an opportunity for the 6 Federations to come together and discuss implementation, innovation and impact of First Contact Physiotherapists across Northern Ireland.
Suzanne Kennedy Physiotherapy Lead, travelled to Tokyo in March 2023 to complete her sixth Abbots World Marathon Major raising over £2000 for the Friends of Cancer Centre to date.
Suzanne completed the world marathon majors which are held in Boston, Berlin, London, Chicago, New York and Tokyo within the last 12 months and is now one of 3941 female runners worldwide to complete this challenge to become a six star finisher.
Well done Suzanne 👏🏼
MDT - Social Work
Many positives to share relating to the work and achievements of the Senior Social Workers and their Social Work assistants within their practices and our communities.
I previously made mention of further development and enhancement of our relationships with the community and voluntary (C&V) sector (for all MDT) regarding developing community based preventative services. A recent workshop has been completed after examining the MDT and Voluntary sector steering group, reviewing its terms of reference, chairmanship, focus and objectives. There is now a revamped steering group with a refreshed terms of reference in the hope this can prove a springboard for more improved joint working.
That is not to say that there hasn’t been much successful joint working in delivering services further developed since our last newsletter. The carers support group in Coleraine with scores of members continues to grow with a shift now in making the group self-sufficient with less SW support.
The equine facilitated learning group for young people with Mental Health concerns in Coleraine, delivered in partnership with the Riding for the Disabled Association is being relaunched this financial year with ring-fenced places for the hard pressed Family Support Hub as well as direct referrals from MDT/GP practices. This group is also linking with the CAMHS service in the hope further funding can be obtained from the Trust to assist those young people though not meeting the criteria for a CAMHS service, are still in need of support. A great example of tripartite MDT, Trust statutory services and the C&V sector working together to meet community needs.
I’m very happy to share that the Causeway Neurodiversity support group continues to go from strength to strength now gaining charitable status, a working board, a very healthy service user voice/participation and a hugely popular and well used Facebook page (with hits running into the thousands).
The existing men’s shed/community garden group in Garvagh continues to grow now assisting with the development of a community garden in Rasharkin.
There continues to be a significant number of small walking groups, tea/coffee morning groups, luncheon clubs quietly going about their business bringing warmth, companionship and company for many who would have experienced loneliness and isolation previously.
In relation to direct clinical social work provision in practices, we continue to work hard to share our existing resources over more practices by reducing the SW and SWA provision from those practices that do have a SW resource. This is an ongoing effort that is having some success.
Finally, we were offered a useful opportunity to share the benefits of MDT on the BBC webpage, radio and regional news recently which I hope assisted highlighting to our communities that we are here and perhaps importantly, gave some evidence that MDT really is making a significant and positive difference to Primary Care service delivery.
Communication to Causeway GP Practices
Dear Colleagues,
In line with HSCB guidance, a pain medication reduction pharmacist from the NHSCT is due to commence gabapentinoid reduction programmes in the Causeway locality over the coming weeks.
We would encourage you all to engage with this new initiative, as we work to improve pain management services and patient care. Practices with high rates of prescribing will be targeted first, however it is hoped that this programme will be rolled out to all GP surgeries in the coming months.
Please be aware of patients joining your practice who may be on the scheme. We are happy to provide advice on how to continue to support these patients in their reduction journey.
If you would like more information on the reduction programmes please contact Kirsty.mcclintock@northerntrust.hscni.net
NFSU Project Coordinator Update
All Practice Staff within CW Fed,
Recently we have researched and circulated information in relation Blue Light Card for all practice staff and agreed a joint Accurx contract for EMIS practices across the region which resulted in a £4K cost saving.
Leadership Development Training for MDTs
You will be aware that we have been facilitating “Leadership Development Training for MDTs” within Causeway Fed during April & May for anyone in supervisory / management / clinical lead roles who are involved within the wider MDT.
These sessions have covered the following topics: “Leadership Styles / Behaviours”, “High Performing Healthcare Teams”, “Conflict Management & Dealing with Difficult People”, “Influencing & Negotiating”, “Change Management” & “Navigating the System & Leading through Crisis”. Thank you to all those who have attended, participated, and supported these sessions.
There is 1 remaining session to be held online on
Wednesday 14 June at 9:30 to 12:30
on the “Wellbeing for Healthcare Teams” -
We still have availability to attend therefore if anyone is interested in attending please register here Click here to register . If you have already registered your interest, there is no need to register again.
GP Fellowship
Helping Practices attract, support, and retain tomorrow's clinical practitioners.
The Federation Support Unit is delighted to recently have secured the “regional” GP Fellows programme for 23/24. NFSU are managing this programme for the first time and are hopeful that we will be able to continue with this in future years. 4 GP Fellows have been appointed and all of them will have started their employment with us by August. Whilst unfortunately none of the Fellows will be primarily based within the Northern Federations (with the natural geographical profile of those who were appointed), we would be keen to further promote this programme for future years within our Northern Federations. Therefore, please keep this in mind should you know of anyone who may be suitable for the programme next Spring / Summer (2024) as we would appreciate your help widening our talent pool even further.
The GP Fellows programme is a 1-year contract for newly qualified GPs, which provides them with the opportunity to carry out clinical sessions, gain experience in an area of specialism, leadership development and coaching sessions. We will of course keep you updated of future developments of this programme when applicable.
Practice Improvement and Crisis Response Team
I have been working closely with the Practice Improvement and Crisis Response Team (PICRT), and Paula has kindly agreed to host a brief “Best Practice Suggestion” session (probably online) for practices if there was interest in something like this. This would look at different initiatives’ practices may wish to consider in relation not improving processes with practices etc. Please let me know by Fri 16 June 23 (via email) if this is something you may be interested in?
Lastly, just to let each of you know that I will be going off on maternity leave around the middle of August and during this period I am off, my colleague Rachael will be your point of contact for any project related ideas / progress etc.
Yours Sincerely,
Naomi
(Project Coordinator)
Tel: 028 9620 8333 | Mob: 07799249892
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General Practice Elective Care Services
Across the region, General Practice Elective Care Services continue to grow and excel.
The GP Elective Care Service comprises of a group of primary care doctors (largely General Practitioners) who have extended their training in over 5 specialties across the 17 federation areas in Northern Ireland. They perform these enhanced clinics at chosen ‘host practices’ across each federation area and aim to: Reduce referrals to secondary care, with more intensified management of conditions within primary care. Decrease waiting times for hospital consultants. Improve patients’ experience with the Northern Ireland health care system. Provide education to patients and local GPs. Provide an alternative referral pathway for GPs. Promote self-management of many common problems.
PCSS (Primary Care Surgical Service)
Host Practice: Ballymoney Family Practice
(07783874682)
Gynaecology
Host Practice: Frocess Medical Centre
(07783874625)
MSK
Host Practice: Lodge Health Centre
(07783874741)
Vasectomy
Host Practice: Ballyclare Practice
*Regional Service
(07783874748)
To check updated approx waiting times, service information, contact details and other information please check on our website at Elective Care (ECR) | Northern Federation Support Unit (northernfsu.co.uk)
Eastern FSU Elective Care Team have recently collated data and feedback across Northern Ireland which show how valuable the service is to patients.
A note from the Regional Clinical Lead Dr Siobhan McEntee:
“It has been over 4 years since Elective Care was first commissioned and now over 51,000 patients have been seen through the service. I would like to thank all the amazing team who make this possible; the GPES doctors and Leads, the Nurses, HCAs and all the staff in the Practice Teams who contribute so much to keeping this service running smoothly. Delivering a high standard of patient care is always your first priority and I think this feedback reflects the patients appreciation of the fabulous work you do.”
Dr Siobhan McEntee
Bespoke, engaging courses designed specifically for GP practice staff, delivered by expert trainers.
As all Practice Managers will be aware, the Federation have purchased a 3-year licence for each of our 73 GP Practices to have access to Practice Index Training for you & all your staff within your Practice.
You should all have received a log in by this stage to access the portal. Practice Index Training - A modern approach to Primary Care training - Practice Index Training
✅ Active Signposting
✅Chaperones in General Practice
✅Complaint Management
✅Conflict
✅ Correspondence Management
✅GDPR
✅Dealing with Abusive, Aggressive and Violent Patients
✅Effective Recruitment
✅Having Difficult Conversations
✅Improving Communication (Staff and Patients)
✅Leadership in Primary Care
✅Receptionists in Primary Care
✅Understanding Medical Terminology
✅Telephone Triage for Receptionists
and 100s more exciting courses for your staff which you can see here -
If you can’t find what you are looking for? – they will create it for you!
Practice Managers also have access to Holiday Manager on Practice Index.
Staff can request leave online, meaning the days of bits of paper floating around your office are long gone. Then, with an instant check to see who else is off, simply click and you’re done – you’ve approved the annual leave! What’s not to love?
Holiday Manager handles new starter and leaver calculations with ease. It can make instant calculations for part-time workers, calculate (and automatically deduct) bank holidays, and enables holiday to be calculated in either hours or sessions depending on the staff member.
Simply add start or finish dates for each member of staff, any contractual terms and away you go! It really is that simple. Where you’re happy to do so, at the end of each year, you can carry over any unused annual leave with one click. The benefits don’t stop there; Holiday Manager reminds staff that they need to take annual leave and provides you with a list of staff who have high levels of unbooked leave. It also gives you an overview of who is off in the next 30 days, along with any leave requests you have pending.
Holiday Manager also helps you to manage other types of absence, and can even calculate the Bradford Factor to support you in managing sickness absence.
RCGPNI have launched their GP and Practice of the Year Awards. General practice is facing huge challenges, but every day amazing care takes place.
Take a few minutes to nominate your GP or GP practice team. All the information you need is here:
If you have any queries, suggestions, potential projects or ideas for the Causeway GP Federation please do not hesitate to contact the Federation Support Unit on info@northernfsu.co.uk
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