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
Dear Colleague
Please find correspondence HERE from HSCB in relation to funding for vaccination clinics held at off-site locations or outside of normal commercial opening hours in December 2021.
Summary
The HSCB have confirmed that additional funding is available for community pharmacies to carry out dedicated Covid-19 vaccination clinics during December 2021. The following options are available:
Provide clinic(s) in current Pharmacy premises outside of normal commercial opening hours
Provide clinic(s) at an off-site location (non-pharmacy) premises at any time
Funding of £200 per eligible vaccination clinic is available.
Action
If you wish to claim this funding, please complete the claim form and return to your local Integrated Care office.
If you have any queries please contact a member of the CPNI team.
Kind regards
SENT ON BEHALF OF GERARD GREENE Chief Executive
Dear Colleague
The first update concessionary prices were granted for December 2021:
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
Dear Colleague
Northern Ireland’s community pharmacies have administered over 250,000 COVID-19 vaccinations since the sector’s inclusion in the vaccination programme in March 2021, with nearly 83,000 attributed as booster vaccinations.
This is a fantastic achievement and a testament to the hard work and agility of the network and I would like to thank contractors and their teams for their dedication and commitment in supporting the COVID-19 vaccination service. CPNI issued a press release today (available HERE) to mark this important milestone and already since its release, the number of vaccinations doses have increased by at least a further 4,000.
These are some of busiest weeks in Community Pharmacy and community pharmacy teams will be working hard to dispense the medicines patients will need for the Christmas and new year holiday periods. To help manage public expectation, we included a reference in the press release addressing this. We have highlighted the additional pressures on the network at this time, which may affect the availability of the COVID-19 vaccination service at some community pharmacies in the lead up to and over the festive season.
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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