Diabetic Screening, PVN Notifications, FODO News

21 March 2024

We have 3 items for you today:

1. • Diabetic Eye Screening Programme
     
     Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust advise:
     From 1 April 2024 Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust (HCT) will be the lead provider for the Diabetic Eye Screening Programme (DESP) across Hertfordshire and West Essex (HWE).

     This is an exciting opportunity for the Hertfordshire and West Essex system. HCT already runs the DESP for West Hertfordshire and we will be working with East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust (ENHT) who will provide clinical leadership and deliver screening at a number of locations. This will enable us to deliver a single, efficient, effective, and standardised service across the whole of HWE.

     HCT is working closely with ENHT, with the current provider of the west Essex service, InHealth, and with the commissioning body NHS England during the transition. Patients do not need to do anything differently as they will be contacted as normal for their regular screening appointments.

     There will be one telephone contact number 01442 285 854 and a generic email address – hct.hwedesp@nhs.uk.

     Elliot Howard-Jones, Chief Executive at HCT said: “We are delighted to be announced as the new lead provider of DESP across Hertfordshire and West Essex. Through the opportunity to bring all these services together we can co-design our future screening programme working with patients, staff and other partners and services.
     “This will help to further improve outcomes and experiences for patients, contribute to reducing health inequalities and ensure high levels of staff engagement, development, and satisfaction.
     “We are working with our partners to ensure there is a smooth transition for all concerned.”

     There will be minor changes to some clinic locations, patients will be advised of these changes in their appointment letters. A full list of screening locations will be shared before the start date.

     The service delivers diabetic eye screening at a number of locations throughout Hertfordshire and west Essex, including health centres, GP surgeries and hospitals.

     All people aged 12 and over with diabetes (type 1 and 2) are offered annual eye screening appointments.

     The only exceptions are people with diabetic eye disease who are already under the care of an ophthalmology specialist. The screening test usually takes around 30 minutes. Screening does not replace regular eye examinations and it is important to attend both.

     If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the service using the details as above.

     HCT Communications Team
     Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust
     Howard Court | 14 Tewin Road | Welwyn Garden City | AL7 1BW

     (NB: The word “system” in the second sentence relates to the Integrated Care System, an NHS body that brings together the health and care organisations in a particular local area, to work together more closely.)

• • PVN (Pre Visit Notification) claims submitted through eGOS/API with special characters rejected
    LOCSU have forwarded the following information from PCSE:

    Dear Colleague,

     

    We are writing about an issue we have identified where PVN notifications/GOS claims are being submitted through eGOS/API that contain special characters in the patient details. The system is set up to recognise characters associated with names, such as an apostrophe (‘) e.g. O’Hara, or a hyphen (-) for a double barrelled name, e.g. Anne-Marie or Taylor-Hall. When any other special character is used, including an exclamation mark (!), speech marks (“), question mark (?) or percentage sign (%), the claim is rejected. If a PVN notification/GOS claim is submitted with any other special characters in the patient details fields, such as name, the system automatically rejects this claim. At this moment in time, there is no mechanism to notify you of this rejection.  We are working on a solution to be able to notify contractors of a rejected claim, and we’ll let you know as soon as the functionality is available. In the meantime, we ask that store colleagues do not use other special characters when completing a patient’s details. We appreciate your cooperation in this matter. If you have a query about the process or a payment, please use the Ophthalmic Payments enquiry form on the PCSE website.

     

    Best wishes, The PCSE Ophthalmic Payments Team

• FODO News
  Is HERE including Newsnight – cataract surgery in England, RCO – Actions to future-proof ophthalmology services and RNIB reports on hidden social care scandal. Their update from 8th March can be found HERE, including OFNC update on GOS fees 2024/25, PSA publishes its latest review of GOC performance and Managing risk – clinicians practising without GOC registration.

Kind regards

Herts LOC