IMPORTANT DH Publishes List of Practice Payments due for Compensation under 10.2m Windfall

Click here to download the full list and find out if you are due a payment.

Click here to go to the DH website and read more

If you are not already booked on Dispex 2012, we strongly urge you to contact keira@surelines.com or telephone her on 01604 859000. There are limited sponsor’s tickets available for practice staff to attend free of charge.

Telecoms Price Changes!

As of 1^st March, the telecoms watchdog Ofcom has ruled that the rental cost of digital ISDN30 lines is to decrease by 6%. The ruling has been put in place to bring ISDN30 pricing more in line with cheaper SIP solutions which are available to businesses.

Through Surelines, Focus Telecom is passing these industry price reductions directly over to members. For your free cost saving analysis, or simply to speak to someone about your telecoms then please call us on 01604 552888.

Health and Social Care Bill gains royal assent

"The Health and Social Care Bill today gained Royal Assent to become the Health and Social Care Act (2012).

The core principles of the Act mean that doctors and nurses will be able to tailor services for their patients, more choice will be given to patients over how they are treated, and bureaucracy in the NHS will be reduced.

The Act will:

• Devolve power to front-line doctors and nurses: Health professionals will be free to design and tailor local health services for their patients;

• Drive up quality: Patients will benefit from a renewed focus on improving quality and outcomes;

• Ensure a focus on integration: There will be strong duties on the health service to promote integration of services;

• Strengthen public health: Giving responsibility for local public health services to local authorities will ensure that they are able to pull together the work done by the NHS, social care, housing, environmental health, leisure and transport services;

• Give patients more information and choice: Patients will have greater information on how the NHS is performing and the range of providers they can choose for their healthcare. And they will have a stronger voice through Healthwatch England and local Healthwatch;

• Strengthen local democratic involvement: Power will shift from Whitehall to town hall – there will be at least one locally elected councillor and a representative of Healthwatch on every Health and Wellbeing Board, to influence and challenge commissioning decisions and promote integrated health and care;

• Reduce bureaucracy: Two layers of management – Primary Care Trusts and Strategic Health Authorities – will be removed through the Act, saving £4.5 billion over the lifetime of this Parliament, with every penny being reinvested in patient care."

[Taken verbatim from: http://mediacentre.dh.gov.uk/2012/03/27/health-and-social-care-bill-gains-royal-assent/ ]

To find out how this will affect YOUR surgery and dispensing doctors book your place now at Dispex 2012 – special offers for group bookings of two or more delegates now available.

Phone Keira on 01604 859000 or email keira@surelines.com for more details. Click the link below to visit the Dispex 2012 website.

Failure to produce a signed order or requisition

For all your controlled drugs training and publication requirements phone Surelines on 01604 859000 and ask for Haydn for publications and CD registers and Megan for CD Training.

Prescription Charge Set to Rise to £7.65 from 1st April 2012.

Click here to read the legislation: 

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/470/made

Registering with the CQC Latest News

At some point later on this year, all GPs and other primary medical services will have to register with the Care Quality Commission [CQC] and thereafter comply with essential standards of care covering quality and safety.

Advice from the CQC is that GP practices need to start planning for this process now:

“These are the key things you should start to do now:

Establish if your organisation needs to register

Establish which legal entity you need to register as and for how many locations

Establish what activities you'll register for and which individuals will be responsible for complying with standards

Establish if you already comply with the standards, or if you need to think about making changes”

[Taken from http://www.cqc.org.uk/node/1297]

In July the CQC will be sending out letters with login details and a code to begin the CQC registration process.

Applications to register with the CQC will then need to be formally submitted between September and December 2012.

It may be that the CQC will need more information, if so they will contact you about this.

The CQC will then assess your application form and tell you the outcome before April 2013.

Road shows across the country are being organised by the CQC for those who want to speak directly to them about the registration process.

An overview of registration with the CQC can be downloaded here.

Dispex 2012 Speaker Announcement

Paul Burns, Chair of the Pharmaceutical Services Advisory Group, will be speaking at Dispex 2012.

Paul returns to the Dispex stage following a well attended and respected speech at Dispex 2010. Paul will address matters pertinent to dispensing doctors in what is expected to be another year of great change within the NHS. Delegates will be able to ask Paul his opinion on the future of pharmaceutical service provision in the NHS and the current state-of-play as he sees it in May 2012.

This further speaker will strengthen the conference line up with Michael Sobanja, Chief Executive of the NHS Alliance, and Mark Simmonds M.P already announcing that they will be speaking at Dispex 2012.

Contact events@surelines.com for further details.