Please find correspondence HERE which issued today from Chief Medical Officer Professor Sir Michael McBride.
SUMMARY
Health and social care workers, including Community Pharmacy team members, identified as close contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases, including household and non-household contacts, will be permitted to attend work, provided all the requirements set out below are met:
The staff member has had two doses of an approved vaccine, and has received a booster dose at least 14 days prior to the date of their exposure to the confirmed case. Staff who are not yet eligible for the booster because it is less than three months since their second dose can also return under this policy provided their second dose was more than 14 days prior to the date of exposure.
The staff member should have a PCR test as soon as possible after their exposure and this PCR should return a negative result. Staff should not attend work while awaiting the PCR test result. If a staff member has had a positive COVID-19 PCR test in the past 90 days, they should not have a PCR test unless they develop symptoms. Instead they should take a lateral flow test (LFT) as soon as possible and before attending the workplace and if it is negative can return to work and follow the rest of this guidance – including continuing with daily LFTs.
If the PCR test is negative, the staff member can return to work but should take a daily lateral flow test following receipt of the negative PCR result (including on the same day they receive that result) until the tenth day after the last date of contact with the positive case. The lateral flow should be taken before leaving for work each day.
LFT results should be reported to Test and Trace via the web portal Report a COVID-19 rapid lateral flow test result – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) . They should also report the result to the duty manager or an identified senior staff member. Any staff member who has a positive LFT should self-isolate immediately, not attend work and arrange a PCR test.
The staff member should only attend work if they are and remain asymptomatic.
Staff member should continue to adhere to all advised/required Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) measures, in line with the current UK IPC guidance and appropriate to the service setting to which the staff member is returning.
If the staff member develops any COVID-19 symptoms they should stay at home, immediately self-isolate and arrange a PCR test.
A risk assessment of the service area is undertaken and documented, along with of a record that all mitigations as set out above are in place (see Annex A). This should be undertaken by a suitably competent and authorised manager in the organisation.
Additional safeguards should continue to apply to settings where staff are deemed to be working in close contact with those at the highest risk of adverse consequences of COVID -19. This highest risk group would include, for example, patients on chemotherapy, transplant patients, those who have profound immune-deficiency and unvaccinated residents in care homes. This list is not exhaustive and local management may determine other groups in their setting.
ACTION
Contractors should read the CMO correspondence in full and discuss with their teams
Contractors should refer to the Checklist provided with the CMO correspondence
Should you have any queries please contact a member of the CPNI team.
Kind regards
SENT ON BEHALF OF GERARD GREENE Chief Executive
Dear Colleague
Please find correspondence HERE from Joe Brogan, Assistant Director of Integrated Care, Head of Pharmacy and Medicines Management.
SUMMARY
From today, community pharmacies can administer COVID-19 booster vaccinations to:
individuals aged 18 years and over for whom it has been at least 3 months since their primary vaccination course has been completed.
The Community Pharmacy Service is only available to individuals aged 18 years and above. The service specification, PGD and other relevant documentation for the COVID-19 community pharmacy vaccination service are available on the COVID-19 CPVS webpage.
ACTION
Contractors and pharmacists involved in the provision of this service are asked to:Review the correspondence.
Review the updated service specification, PGD and other relevant documentation for the COVID-19 community pharmacy vaccination service are available on the COVID-19 CPVS webpage.
Concessionary prices will be paid against the usual code, no additional endorsements are needed.
Concessionary prices may be granted up until the end of the month so CPNI will notify you of any further concessionary prices as and when they are agreed.
Please continue to notify CPNI of any pricing issues you are experiencing via our new Medicine Shortage Reporter. Concessionary prices are also published on the CPNI website.
Kind regards
SENT ON BEHALF OF DR. GARETH C. GILVARY Governance & Support Pharmacist
This update contains important information for community pharmacy teams, including details of the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Integrated Guidance Update on health clearance of healthcare workers and the management of healthcare workers living with blood borne viruses 17 December 2021
SENT ON BEHALF OF DR. GARETH C. GILVARY Governance & Support Pharmacist
Dear Colleague
Please find correspondence HERE from Joe Brogan, Assistant Director of Integrated Care, Head of Pharmacy and Medicines Management.
SUMMARY
Department of Health has communicated that the 15 minute wait should be temporarily suspended for first, second and homologous or heterologous boost vaccinations with mRNA vaccine in the light of the OMICRON variant.
Community pharmacies offering Moderna COVID-19 vaccination services to include an observation period of 15 minutes post-vaccination has been suspended for the vast majority of vaccinations.
From Tuesday 21 December 2021, community pharmacies can advertise the facility to administer COVID-19 booster vaccinations to individuals aged 18 years and over for whom it has been at least 3 months since their primary vaccination course has been completed.
In the meantime any walk-ins within this age cohort should NOT be turned away if capacity exists within your service to administer the booster and the requirements of the service documentation are met.
ACTION
Contractors and pharmacists involved in the provision of this service are asked to:
Note the requirement to maintain the 15 minute post vaccination observation remains for the very small number of people with a strong history of dangerous or unexplained allergic reactions.
Provide a leaflet to all individuals receiving their vaccine advising them of allergic symptoms and what to do should they experience these symptoms.
Advise the public should be advised to seek medical attention if they become unwell in the hours following vaccination.
The, updated PGD for the COVID-19 community pharmacy vaccination service is available on the COVID-19 CPVS webpage.
Please do not hesitate to contact the CPNI office should you require any further information.
Kind regards
SENT ON BEHALF OF GERARD GREENE Chief Executive
Dear Colleague
The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry Northern Ireland (APBI) has issued a press release in respect of the managing of personal data on Disclosure UK.
Disclosure UK is part of a Europe-wide initiative to increase transparency between pharmaceutical companies and the doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare professionals (HPCs) and organisations they work with. It administers a searchable database that shows payments and benefits in kind made by the pharmaceutical industry to HPCs in the UK.
CONSENT
A majority of pharmaceutical companies are relying on ‘consent’ to publish a HCP’s name and practice address against the benefit they received on Disclosure UK. The terms of processing data under Consent require clear and explicit agreement from each individual. Practically, this means companies must ask each HCP for permission to publish their name, principle practicing address together with the benefits received on Disclosure UK.
LEGITIMATE INTERESTS
However, under ‘Legitimate Interests’ a company asserts their transparency commitments over the data rights of the individual HCP. To reach that conclusion, a company must first consider why it wants to deal with the data in this way, if there are other means of achieving the same result, and if, on balance, the legitimate interests of the company in making this data publicly available should override the individual HCP’s own interests.
In practice, this means a company does not ask the HCP for permission to publish their name and practice address with the benefit received on Disclosure UK. Whilst no longer asking for formal consent, the company has a responsibility to be clear about their intentions with the HCP and must allow individuals to exercise their right to raise objections.
ACTION
Contractors are advised to note:
The announcement made by the APBI
That HCPs may not be asked for explicit consent for the disclosing of information on the site relating to such matters but they must be allowed to exercise their right to raise objections.
Kind regards
SENT ON BEHALF OF GERARD GREENE Chief Executive
WhatsApp Business Terms of Service can be found here and privacy policy hereUCA-NI Privacy Policy We take your privacy seriously and do not share or sell any personal details with third parties for commercial purposes. If you have any questions, please contact the CPNI office. You can withdraw your consent to be contacted at any time by calling 028 9069 0444 or by emailing info@communitypharmacyni.co.uk. CPNI Data Protection Policy and Data Retention policy can be found Click Here
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