NHS England – South East Optometry Team Newsletter – March 2023

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to the March 2023 edition of the NHS England – South East Optometry Commissioning Team’s quarterly newsletter.

In this edition:

• National Patient Safety Alert
• Primary Care Support England (PCSE) guidance/updates
• Quality in Optometry (QiO) checklist
• Applying for a new NHSmail or Egress account
• User account changes to NHSmail
• Changes that affect your GOS contract
• Reporting other changes
• GOS 4 pre-authorisation help
• Help with patient GOS eligibility queries

National Patient Safety Alert: EyeCee One preloaded and EyeCee One Crystal preloaded Intraocular Lenses

On 1 February, the MHRA issued a patient safety alert in respect of EyeCee One preloaded and EyeCee One Crystal preloaded intraocular lenses, following the device safety information notification (DSI/2023/001) issued on 26 January 2023. More information is available in this letter – click here

PCSE guidance/updates

PCSE have guidance and advice available to contractors: Ophthalmic Payments – Primary Care Support England

PCSE latest update: Ophthalmic Bulletin – January 2023 (pcsengland.co.uk)

• Moving to online GOS claims
• Top 5 reasons for rejections
• System improvements
• Access to roles in PCSE Online

Quality in Optometry (QiO) checklist

Thank you to all those contractors who updated their QiO checklist. GOS contractors are asked to complete and submit a Quality in Optometry (QiO) GOS contract compliance checklist once every 3 years. The requirement for completing this declaration is for NHS England to monitor contract compliance. Practices that flag with incomplete assurance and other criteria, together with a small random selection of others, will be asked to participate in a compliance (mainly virtual) visit.

Visit: http://www.qualityinoptometry.co.uk to complete this online checklist no later than 24th February 2023 if you haven’t done so already.

We recommend that you download a pdf copy of your submission for your own records. The self-assessment will substantially reduce the number of practices requiring a contract compliance visit by us. Should you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact us.

Applying for a new NHSmail or Egress account

GOS practices affiliated to GOS contractors holding more than 10 contracts (including their franchisees and joint venture practices) might not be able to set up a new NHSmail account.

However, you need to be able to send emails and documents securely, particularly letters to GPs and colleagues working in secondary care. You can apply to set up an Egress account: GOS contractors can apply for an NHS Egress account | NHSBSA

User account changes to NHSmail

NHSmail users in optometry practices are strongly advised to regularly log in to their accounts. NHS Digital will be making changes to the NHSmail account lifecycle from early December 2022 to address the security risk to the platform caused by inactive accounts. Both the ‘active’ and ‘inactive’ periods are being reduced to 30 days and accounts that remain unused during this period will become eligible for deletion after 60 days. During this time, users have a further 30 days to get their account restored before it is deleted permanently.

If you are going on long term leave, please ask the shared mailbox owner to mark your account as disabled – this stops them being deleted for 18 months. When you return you must ask for it to be re-enabled. If you are having issues with your NHS mail account, there is help available through a dedicated optometry FAQ: NHSmail frequently asked questions (FAQs) for users managed by the National Administration Service (NAS) – NHSmail Support

Changes that affect your GOD contract

There is a contractual obligation to inform NHSBSA: nhsbsa.pao- contractadmin@nhs.net of any change affecting your GOS contract as listed below:

• Change of days or hours that you provide GOS
• Change of contact details, including email and telephone number
• Relocation of premises or adding additional premises
• Change of Registered Office for corporate bodies
• Notification of changes of Director/Secretary/CEO in a corporate body
• Contractor status changes e.g. individual (sole trader) / partnership/ corporatebody
• Changes in partnerships or limited liability partnerships, which includeschanges to the members of the partnership or death in service of a partner
• Termination of GOS contractIf you are relocating premises, please contact NHSBSA before the moving date, giving them plenty of notice to arrange a practice visit. In preparation for issuing a contract variation, all new premises must be inspected prior to continuing to provide GOS. Contract variations will be issued to practices that are fully compliant with the Equality Act i.e. a patient in a wheelchair needs to be able to enter the practice and be able to access the testing room. The QIO checklist covers all aspects of the contract and will assist you in preparing for the practice inspection. The checklist can be found at: www.qualityinoptometry.co.ukIf you need to request a change to your bank account, please contact NHSBSA nhsbsa.pao-contractadmin@nhs.net. You will be asked to complete a declaration of banking details form, to be signed by all directors, partners or Individuals party to the contract. The South East Optometry Team will apply to Shared Business Services (SBS) for a new financial reference code and, once complete, we will inform PCSE to make future GOS payments to your new bank account. Please be aware that the process can take several weeks. In the interim, please continue to submit your GOS claims as normal and do not close down your old bank account until you receive confirmation that we have completed your request.

Reporting other changes affecting your GOS contract

You must notify NHSE – South East Optometry Team by email of the following changes:

• Changes in regular performers
• 24-hour retirements (OMP contractors only)
• Planned or unplanned closures
• Suspension of GOS services, such as suspension for refurbishment or holiday
• Notification within 7 days of a change to your personal circumstances, such as a GOC investigation, conviction, charge of an offence, or insolvencyPlease remember, it is important to notify a change in any of the above two sections. In some cases, the failure to do so could result in a breach notice being issued.
  

  NHS General Opthalmic Services 4 pre-authorisation help

  NHSBSA has published guidance to help ophthalmic contractors with GOS 4 pre- authorisation requests to repair or replace a patient’s glasses. The article covers what is a GOS 4 voucher, how to check your patient qualifies and how to get pre- authorisation: Under the Lens: Pre-authorising your GOS 4 vouchers

Help with patient GOS eligibility queries

If you have questions about help with patient entitlement to receive GOS or any other health costs you can call the Help with Health Costs helpline: 0300 330 1343.

NHS England – South East Optometry Commissioning Team

e: england.southeastoptometry@nhs.net l w: www.england.nhs.uk