Bexley LMC – Newsletter February 2025
As Chair of Bexley LMC, I am delighted to provide a brief introduction to this inaugural newsletter. We aim to send LMC newsletters every alternate month to Bexley practices so please do keep an eye out for these and provide any feedback regarding content to us so that we can ensure these are helpful for you. A special thanks to all my LMC colleagues for their contributions to this first Bexley LMC newsletter.
LMC members are eager to hear from you and the challenges you are facing. This will provide evidence that general practice needs more financial and organisational support, if it is to deliver the quality of care that it desperately wants to, and what our patients truly deserve. We are here to represent your views and ensure that the general practice voice is heard loud and clear.
Bexley LMC committee members
- Dr Asad Rahman, Mohammed – PMS Principal, Barnard Medical Group Practice
- Dr Bhadra, Sushanta – PMS Principal, Riverside Surgery, LMC Chair
- Mr Cooper, Marshall – Business Manager, Lakeside Medical Practice
- Dr Fijten, Rik – PMS Principal, The Albion Surgery
- Dr Guruswamy, Mugunthan – PMS Salaried, Bexley Medical Group
- Dr Harris-Faulkner, Ethan – GMS Principal, Crayford Town Surgery
- Dr Karkare, Shraddha – PMS Principal, Sidcup Medical Centre
- Dr Khanna-Deshmukh, Sonia – PMS Partner, Sidcup Medical Centre
- Dr Moir, Jhumur – PMS Principal, Pickford Surgery
- Dr Patel, Mehal – PMS Principal, Bursted Wood Surgery, Lyndhurst Medical Centre
- Dr Williams, Huw – PMS Partner, Lakeside Medical Practice
- Ms Vernon, Lisa – Practice Manager, Bursted Wood Surgery
What is the LMC and what do we do?
The Local Medical Committee (LMC) is a Statutory Body of elected members from Bexley that works on your behalf with commissioners and other stakeholders at both local and SE London level to represent the interests of all GPs in Bexley. The LMC meets regularly with the Integrated Care Board (ICB, Local Authority and broader system stakeholders and actively participates in negotiations on local General Practice contracts. We also contribute to national contract debates via engagement with the General Practitioners Committee (GPC) of the British Medical Association (BMA).
The LMC is here for partners, sessional GPs (salaried and GP locums) and all practice staff. We are supported by staff from Londonwide LMCs.
If you have any queries or questions, please contact the LMC via Aisha Riaz [email protected].
GP Support Team
Bexley practices can also access confidential support and advice about practice specific issues via Londonwide LMCs GP Support Team [email protected]. For further information upon what the GP Support Team can help you with, please see this link.
Our current position:
Elections
This September will see LMC elections in all the boroughs within Londonwide LMCs and in Bexley, we are keen to encourage new members to nominate themselves for election for the new term in September 2025.
The Londonwide office team will be sending comms about the election process to all GP constituents in April so please look out for these if you are interested in joining Bexley LMC.
GP collective action
On 14th November, Bexley LMC hosted a virtual drop-in session for all GPs in Bexley to discuss collective action/safe working, which was well attended by various member practices. The Londonwide LMCs office team shared a presentation on the BMA collective action, outlining the support Londonwide can offer practices, and an in-depth summary of the nine BMA actions. Londonwide LMCs has produced a webinar on safe care in practices, which is linked here and there are further links to helpful resources referenced in the webinar.
The LMC is aware of the increasing inappropriate transfer of work from private providers to General Practice. Londonwide has produced template letters which explain that a request should not be actioned in General Practice and detail the appropriate setting for the request to be made. We advise colleagues to utilise these template letters.
General Practice Alert State (GPAS)
Londonwide LMCs has decided to pause GPAS while its impact is evaluated. Londonwide LMCs will be exploring ways of evolving GPAS to try and meet the objective of sharing pressures experience with the wider system.
Workforce Innovation and Innovation (WTI)
Londonwide’s Workforce-Training and Innovation (WTI) directorate provides key training courses for GPs and their practice team. Here is a list of upcoming taught days & courses:
- Aspiring to partnership programme – SEL Cohort 2 – September 2024 – February 2025
- End of tax year planning: make the most of your allowances – 13 March 2025
- Medical Chaperoning – 26 March 2025
Drop in session and practice visits
In an effort to increase communication between GP practices and the LMC, Bexley LMC will be hosting virtual drop-in sessions for all Bexley constituents every other month. The next drop-in session will be taking place on Thursday 13 February from 14.30 – 15.00 pm. We are eager to hear from you and the challenges you are facing and how we can represent you more effectively. We are exploring if regular contact with a local LMC member may be helpful for practices/PCNs.
We look forward to meeting you and hearing your views.
Safe surgeries – Doctors of the World
To improve access to primary care for everyone in our local communities, please see information below if Bexley practices wish to seek further information about becoming an accredited Safe Surgery.
A new e-learning course is available which outlines background on barriers to primary care access, how to become an accredited Safe Surgery, develop inclusive registration processes and resources to support patients.
Synnovis
On 30 October, the SEL LMC Chairs and Vice Chairs sent a joint letter to Andrew Bland, ICB Chief Executive, on behalf of GPs in SEL. The letter outlined serious concerns relating to patient safety, clinical and information governance and the operational effectiveness of Synnovis. We received a response to this letter from SEL ICB and subsequently have written to the acute trusts, GSST and KCH.
On 17th December, a letter was sent to Professor Ian Abbs, GSTT Chief Executive, and Professor Clive Kay, KCH Chief Executive, which raised concerns with the GSTT and KCH contractual arrangements with Synnovis. We are awaiting a response to inform our next steps.
Achievements
- Title: Quality Improvement/interface
Problem: It was highlighted by Bexley GPs that chest xrays which had identified potential malignancy were often being reported in an ambiguous way, leading to increased GP workload and patient anxiety.
Actions: LMC members met with the Darent Valley radiology team to raise this issue. We worked closely with them to amend the wording of abnormal chest X-ray reports and this issue has now been resolved, benefiting both Bexley GPs and patients alike. - Title: Interface with Public Health
Problem: Supporting General Practice Public Health connectivity.
Actions: We have established a closer working relationship with SEL Public Health and have met with them to work through some SEL and local challenges. We look forward to this aspect of the interface continuing to develop.
Primary/secondary care interface
LGT Interface: we meet regularly with secondary care colleagues from LGT and Greenwich and Lewisham GPs colleagues, hosted by Greenwich ICB, and have made a lot of progress in redesigning patient care pathways to reduce workload on primary care. We are in the process of developing a letter for GPs to use for inappropriate workload transfer.
Darent Valley Hospital Interface: We have a joint meeting with the Kent LMC and Professor Sriprasad (DVH) to look at interface issues. Professor Sriprasad has been invited to our next LMC meeting where we will discuss Bexley specific issues.
We would encourage GP and practice team colleagues to highlight interface issues when we join practice meetings.
Indemnity
In response to a query from a constituent, Londonwide LMCs has produced detailed guidance to inform GPs on what steps they should take to ensure that they have adequate and appropriate professional indemnity in place.
Incorporation of practices
Londonwide has investigated and sought further information following a constituent query related to the incorporation of practices. Practices that wish to incorporate will need to contact the ICB and then be prepared to submit the information requested in the Acknowledgement of Requests to Incorporate and Incoporation Application – template and guide if they wish to proceed with incorporation. Londonwide LMCs is unable to provide advice in relation to incorporate as this is a business decision that partners would need to make after due consideration and having consulted with their solicitor, accountant, tax advisor etc.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Sushanta Bhadra
Chair
Bexley LMC