Optometrists and Opticians - Introduction

This website is intended to support patients, optometrists and others who are involved with eyecare in Walsall.

 

Prof. Nizar K Hirji
Optometric Advisor
NHS Walsall

______________________________NOTICE______________________________

 

1. Ophthalmic Contractual Compliance practice visits are now underway with the intention of better understanding contractual compliance of GOS contractors within the PCT using NHS Walsall's Ophthalmic Contract Visit Form.

 

In an effort to support you in preparing for these visits, the Primary Care Contracting (PCC) team at NHS Walsall and I have put together the following two documents:

 

1.         1.An Ophthalmic Contract Visit Form for NHS Walsall.

1.         2.Applicable sections of the Ophthalmic Contract Visit Form pre-populated
            with details of the expected evidence for each individual item.

These documents may be found Documents and Policies folder on the  "For NHS Walsall Optometrists & Opticians" pages under Policies and Documents of these web pages. Please note the following with regard to the individual sections on the Ophthalmic Contract Visit Form for NHS Walsall:

 

Section A: applies to all GOS contractors.
Section B: applies to all Mandatory Services contract holders and Digital Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Service (DDRSS) contractors.
Section C: applies to all Additional Services contract holders.
Section G: applies to NHS Walsall's Enhanced Services contractors including Digital DDRSS contractors.
Section H: applies to DDRSS contract holders (under review) 

It would be extremely helpful for all concerned, for you to create a portfolio of evidence in preparation for the envisaged visit using these documents.

 

Should you require any further help and/or have any queries with respect to specific items please call Alison Simmons, our Primary Care Contracts Manager on 01922618348 who will be happy to assist. We are aware that some items on the Visit Form cannot easily be evidenced, and for these we have produced appropriate declaration form – again available from the Documents and Policies folder on the "For NHS Walsall Optometrists & Opticians" pages under "Practice Visit Documents" of these web pages. When you have collated your evidence in your portfolio and are ready for a visit you should contact Alison Simmons to set up the visit if you have not already been contacted first. You should allow 3hrs for this visit (however this may well be shorter if the evidence portfolio is complete and appropriate).

The visit, when scheduled for a mutually convenient date and time, will be led by me and I will be accompanied by a member of the NHS Walsall PCC team and the Clinical Governance team. Should a formal LOC emerge, we will also be inviting a member of the LOC to attend at their discretion. At the end of this process we will all be in a far better position to provide even better primary eye care services to Walsall citizens.

 

2. Post Payment Verification (PPV) practice visits are planned to begin towards the end of this year.The purpose of these PPV practice visit is to gain assurance that:

 

·  There are adequate procedures for recording services provided by the contractor to patients,

·  There is a satisfactory understanding and application of the General Ophthalmic Services and Optical Charges and Payments regulations in respect of each claim type, and

·   Systems exist to prevent errors and omissions, as far as possible, in the claims submitted.

 

NHS Walsall's protocol and methodology for  these visits are detailed in downloadable documents from the policies and documents pages of this website.

 

It will help considerably if you could familiarise yourself with the contents of these documents.

 

The visits will be led by Mrs Val Nadel the Local Counter Fraud Specialist at NHS Walsall and supported by me. More details will be sent to you in due course but do check this site regularly to ensure that you are kept up-to-date.

 

3. Flu vaccination of frontline staff (Oct 2011)

 

• Dr Uma Viswanathan, Consultant in Public Health, is keen to remind optometrists about the need to ensure that frontline healthcare staff ought to be vaccinated against flu, and about the responsibility of the employer to ensure that this happens.  Dr Viswanathan has asked that the attached  letter from David Behan, Director General, Social Care, Local Government and Care Partnerships, DoH, regarding The Seasonal Flu Immunisation Programme 2011/12 be forwarded to all Walsall Optometrists and has requested that the content is circulated to all staff .

The communication from the Chief Medical Officer dated 25^th May 2011, Gateway reference: 16066, makes it clear that it is the responsibility of NHS employers to ensure that arrangements are in place for the vaccination of their frontline health and social care workers.

 

Vaccination of frontline workers helps reduce the level of sickness absences which will contribute to keeping the NHS and care services running. This is particularly important when responding to winter pressures.

 

You can find this document on the Walsall Primary Care Trust Website www.walsall.nhs.uk/primary eye care services