Kings Medical Practice News www.kingmedicalpractice.co.uk

The Care Quality Commission is the organisation that regulates healthcare in England and has this week published the intelligent monitoring data it uses to assess its priorities for visiting practices. They have data about 38 indicators that includes information from the Quality and Outcomes Framework, GP Patient Survey, Electronic Prescribing Systems, hospital admissions and other NHS comparators. It has then used this information to rank practices. Level 1 is practices they have most concerns about and supposedly will be on their agenda for an early inspection visit and Level 6 is those they have least concerns about.  It should be stressed that this is data that is available before they visit. They are not grading practices based on this data and they have published it in the spirit of transparency so that practices and patients can see how they are using data to set priorities for inspection visit. We have been graded as Level 6, that is the level where there are lea

Nasal spray flu vaccine is available for children aged two, three and four years old as part of the NHS Childhood vaccination programme. The vaccine is being offered routinely to all children aged two, three, and four on 1st September. That is, children with a date of birth on or after September 2 2009 and on or before September 1 2012. The flu vaccine is given as a single dose of nasal spray squirted up each nostril. Not only is it needle-free, the nasal spray works even better than the injected flu vaccine, with fewer side effects. The surgery has an open session on Wednesday 19th November between 3 pm and 6 pm when any child who is two, three or four can come and have the spray flu vaccine.