Covid Vaccine Roll Out Has Begun
8 January 2021
The LOC has started sharing the data provided with the relevant CCG’s. The vaccine coordinators may get in touch directly on the numbers provided or via the practice. Phone calls are usually from a withheld number.
Some CCG areas are only offering the vaccine to those who work within an optical practice within their area footprint. If you are offered a vaccine by more than one CCG just explain you have already started the program.
Vaccines may become available at short notice (2-4hours) & can be at any time Monday to Saturday 08:00 – 19.30 (some CCG’s may also be working on Sundays). Staff from the vaccination site will contact staff when vaccinations become available. The location of these sites is very variable depending on CCG. For example; Northumberland is working from GP practices but Newcastle has only 1 or 2 vaccination centres include the Racecourse for all Health & Social Care staff.
We would advise locum staff to ask one of their practices, for the purposes of this process, if they can identify themselves with the practice. If by the end of January any locums still have difficulty accessing the vaccine please contact the LOC.
Please make sure you have your NHS number to hand when the vaccine coordinator contacts you.
Further advice regarding the Covid Vaccine, including advice for pregnant women can be found HERE
Northumberland, Tyne and Wear LOC Latest News
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CET events will run virtually – January to April, 7pm login time to start at 7.15pm prompt. It will be determined if face-to-face networking events can resume after this. There will also be at least one peer review; whether it is done virtually or in-person will be confirmed in 2021. Due to the increased number of …
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29 December 2020
Updated referral information
Remember to regularly check the member-only section of this website for any updates regarding referral information to the local HES
28 December 2020
Lateral flow testing devices for COVID-19 testing of asymptomatic patient-facing staff
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19 December 2020
Covid Antibody testing
Covid antibody testing is available to those who work in Health and Social Care. Access is via social care but the survey allows you to input ; ophthalmic optician or dispensing optician. HERE
9 December 2020
How to Get Help with Opera
The Opera platform includes a Help and Support page with a range of useful resources. There is also an online chat function from the home page, the blue chat bubble in the bottom right hand corner, which can be used to seek help during registration or ongoing for service delivery. Opera introduction webinars took …
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27 November 2020
Opera Registration/Onboarding Top Tips
We’ve put together some tips to help you avoid some common errors: Practice Registrations When you complete your Practice registration the initial onboarding login will be sent to the email address inputted as ‘main contact email’. Please ensure that this email address is unique to the Practice that you are registering, and is correctly inputted without typos Please ensure that you …
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27 November 2020
GRR/Childrens service transition to new IT platform
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27 November 2020
RVI Wet AMD Referral Update
Our macular colleagues within NuTH have requested that all Wet AMD urgent referrals are annotated with date and time of examination moving forward. These should a theoretically all be same day referrals, but please ensure that date and time of examination is clearly noted. We have asked that NuTH update their practitioner documents on the …
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29 October 2020
Control the risk of covid spreading between staff members
Reinforce messages that social distancing and mask wearing are practices equally essential away from the immediate clinical area Remind staff in both non-clinical and clinical areas of the importance of hand hygiene, particularly before and after changing or touching masks Assess whether face to face training is necessary, and if so, ensure …
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19 October 2020
New Exercise Website Launched North of Tyne
HowFit encourages users of any ability, from chair based to fairly fit, to undertake a plan of simple exercises that can be carried out at home without the need for any special equipment. The programme has been created by local Consultant Physician, Dr Steve Parry, in partnership with NHS North Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) …
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19 October 2020