FHFT / GP interface developments and Collaborative Working Reference guide

• Outpatients – urgent treatment or short courses should be given by a hospital prescription
• Refer to the Frimley Formulary to confirm the “Traffic Light Classification” for the medication and accompanying guidance on appropriate prescribing responsibilities:
• Red = Prescribing remains with the specialist for the duration of treatment. Send information on the medication being prescribed to primary care so that it can be documented in the medical record but retain prescribing within the specialist setting.
• Amber with shared care = The specialist should initiate prescribing. The duration that prescribing will remain with the specialist prior to requesting shared care will be defined in the shared care document available on the Frimley Formulary. Once the criteria for requesting shared care are met then write to primary care to ask if care can be shared. Include a copy of the shared care document in this communication.
• Amber without shared care or Green = Where a service user has a need for the medication to be started within 14 days then prescribe to the service user an adequate quantity of that medication to meet the service user’s immediate clinical needs until primary care receives the relevant clinic letter and can prescribe accordingly. It is recommended that this be at least 14 days. If the medication is prescribed as a course rather than a long-term treatment, then supply the full course.
  Where immediate commencement of medication is not required, the specialist will communicate the details to the primary care clinician to action. The prescriber will also reassure the patient that commencing therapy with the medication is not clinically urgent and it may take some time to process the prescription.
  Communication to primary care will include the medication (or class of medication) to be prescribed, duration of medication and relevant information to enable safe prescribing. If local practice and protocols require supply for a longer period, this must be honoured unless alternative local arrangements are agreed.

The below table shows the main ways FHFT communicates key messages with primary care and then re-iterates these messages in other forums (depending on the relevance and importance).

Note - If a communication is Place-specific but not high enough importance/impact for the SCC route AND the item has missed the cut off for the weekly GP bulletin (above) – the communication will be sent via the ICB primary care managers to disseminate to their practices. This should be requested rarely, and we would request confirmation of receipt of the email and distribution of the communication.

* The GP / PC bulletin and SCC are also shared with Buckinghamshire practices via the Buckinghamshire management / communication structures

Frimley ICB primary care bulletin

All GP / primary care bulletins can be found at:  NHS Frimley - GP bulletin archive. The bulletin is managed by Frimley ICB but includes key messages from FHFT to primary care.

If you have any questions relating to any of the material in this email or have any suggestions for how we could improve this, please email: frimleyicb.collaborative.communications@nhs.net.

Clinical Feedback’s main purpose is to provide an insight to quality and safety issues encountered by all services to Frimley ICB and to facilitate learning and improvement. Please refer to the clinical feedback below to find the best route for your enquiry.

If you require any further assistance, please email the Frimley ICB Quality team: frimleyccg.clinicalfeedback@nhs.net

If you have any further thematic concerns/interface improvement ideas, please raise these with our FHFT Interface development team fhft.gpcommunications@nhs.net. We will work with you to resolve, and where required, raise these for a wider discussion at our ICS-wide Clinical Interface Meeting (CIC).

For urgent, patient-specific concerns primary care should contact the service direct. If you have any problems contact PALS:
For services at Frimley Park Hospital 0300 613 6530 fhft.palsfrimleypark@nhs.net 
For services at Heatherwood Hospital or Wexham Park Hospital 0300 615 3706 fhft.palswexhampark@nhs.net  

Discharge support - Key contacts can be found at the bottom of every key speciality discharge letter

Discharge and ward support - Ward contact details

Urgent clinical advice support directory - Urgent advice

Clinical admin / specialty support - Referrals and key contacts 

Buckinghamshire GPs

For clinical concerns relating to patient’s in Buckinghamshire please discuss with your ICB quality team: bobicb-bucks.quality@nhs.net.

Frimley ICB clinical feedback process

This process is designed to help us collate healthcare professionals’ feedback about local health and social care services.

We intend to use this feedback to highlight areas of our system where quality improvement works could benefit the service user, promote equitable and efficient services, and to spread innovation and best practice. We are also interested in hearing about positive experiences as well as those that may have not gone so well.

This supports our aim to continuously improve care and treatment for our local population. “This is not a system for reporting patient safety incidents and is not an urgent response service – please use LFPSE (Learning from Patient Safety Events) or your local reporting system.”