Amidst the craziness of the past few weeks one thing has become more than apparent: we have a significant management capacity problem in general practice at the moment. The introduction of Primary Care Networks (PCNs) has been a challenge for a number of reasons, but increasingly because there simply is not the management capacity to…

Further practices are due to begin COVID-19 vaccination today – although dozens of patients were disappointed yesterday when vaccines failed to arrive. At least 200 appointments were lost in Southport, Merseyside, in Gillingham, Kent, and Kingston, Surrey, because of non-arrival, it was reported. NHS England claimed delays were because practices had not completed safety checks…

Practice-based COVID-19 vaccination will begin today, NHS officials have stated, in spite of warnings of major logistical challenges. Some medical spokespeople have warned that many practices are reluctant to take part in the programme amid concerns about premises and staffing. NHS England promised that “hundreds” of practice vaccine centres will open across England this week,…

As I was wondering how to start this blog, for some reason the Stealers Wheel’s song “Stuck In The Middle With You” came into my mind. Now I’m not for one minute saying that MHRA are clowns or Pfizer jokers; I’m merely emphasising that we’re stuck in the middle! Maybe I should have called the…

After almost a year of battling the COVID-19 pandemic, 90-year-old grandmother Margaret Keenan was the first patient in the world to receive the PfizerBioNTech vaccination at 6:31am this morning, only days after its clinical approval. Delivered in the local hospital in Coventry by NHS nurse May Parsons, this landmark moment signals the start of the…

With one vaccine against COVID-19 now officially approved for use in the UK and others likely to follow, GP practices are certain to play their part in administering the vaccines to the population. However, ensuring how this process, described by NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens as “the largest-scale vaccination campaign in our country’s…

We know that the COVID-19 ES is long and complicated! To help you get ahead of the deadlines, we’ve spent time reading and re-reading all the essential details to break it down into an easy to follow format. The Enhanced Service specification can be found here The ‘Next Steps’ letter, dated 1st December 2020, can…