Gos Forms, Treasurer’s Update, Vaccinations, College Advice On CL Supply, PCSE Downtime & HV CCG News

30 June 2021

We have 7 items for you today:

1. 1. Updates from your Treasurer – GOS Form Rejections, Retrospective Submission and Signatures 
      At another LOCSU Treasurers’ meeting this week it was brought to our attention that some practices have received large numbers of rejected claims from PCSE, mainly involving the new paper forms rather than the digital versions. If this is the case and practices are experiencing financial difficulty PCSE can make an advance payment to the practice.
      If any one is in this position please contact:

      pcse.optomengagement@nhs.net

      If any practices are continuing to have problems please get in touch with me at:

      eileenegay@gmail.com

      and I will contact Katrina Venerus who seems to be able to sort out most things!

      Also, if you or members of your team are having trouble with the NHS digital platform (who isn’t?) GOS forms can be filled in and signed retrospectively, and submitted later when the technology is feeling better!

      If you continue to struggle, further guidance can also be found at:

      https://pcse.england.nhs.uk/media/2565/business-continuity-for-ophthalmic-contractors-v14.pdf

      Apparently, improvements are expected once the new Data Centre is opened, so watch this space!

      REMINDER

      I am sure all practices are aware, but please note that patients are required to sign all GOS forms after 1st July. Annotating forms “COVID19” instead of a signature will not be accepted after that date.

1. 1. Dexamethasone 0.1% (Maxidex) 5ml Eye Drops – Supply Disruption Alert
      NHS East of England have cascaded the following:

      “There are limited supplies of preserved dexamethasone (Maxidex^®) 0.1% eye drops in a multi-dose container until early August 2021 due to a manufacturing issue.  During this period stock will only be available to order directly from Novartis and subject to order limits.

      Dexamethasone 0.1% preservative free and alternative steroid eye drops remain available in single dose and multi-dose containers and collectively can support an uplift in demand.

      For patients with insufficient supplies until the resupply date, clinicians should consider prescribing an alternative preparation as appropriate.

      Patients who are on long term treatment should be fully counselled if switched to alternative preparations, particularly preservative free single dose preparations, due to the need to dispose of the unit dose after use.

      This alert contains further information and action for providers.

      Please note that no response is required via the CAS website to this alert.

      Alert and action required: SDA_2021_007.pdf

      You can view further details of this alert by clicking on the following link: View Alert

      This email has been sent through the East of England Primary Care Gateway process, any queries relating to this email should be sent to SafetyAlerts@mhra.gov.uk“

1. 1. College Guidance on CL Supply Using Expired Specification
      The College Of Optometrists have emailed members stating that “From 21 June 2021 you will not be able to supply contacts lenses to an expired specification during the amber or green phases of the pandemic, even if you believe it is in a person’s best interest.” Members should see their email for further information, but we felt all practitioners needed to be aware that this guidance has been issued.

1. 1. Update to Western Eye Hospital, Imperial College Referral Contact Details
      We have been advised of an updated email address, ophthalmologyadvice.imperial@nhs.net  and telephone number, 020 3312 5791 (08:00 to 20:00, Monday to Friday) for emergency referrals to Western Eye Hospital in London. Please remember that they MUST be contacted for permission BEFORE sending a patient. We have updated our referral contacts list, HERE, which can be downloaded and / or printed should you wish,

1. 1. COVID-19 vaccination walk-in clinic times
      The latest times, dates and locations for vaccination walk-in clinics can be found HERE.

1. 1. PCSE Online Service Update
      PCSE have advised that the planned migration of their data centre, which was scheduled to take place between 1900hrs on Saturday 26 June and 1100hrs on Sunday 27 June, has been postponed. They say “We will be back in touch with further details on when this will take place. In the meantime, you can continue to submit online claims as usual.”

1. Herts Valleys CCG Update
   Can be found HERE, which includes vaccination information from the Hertfordshire Resilience Forum

Kind regards

Herts LOC