This meeting was held on 2 December 2024 at Tollgate Medical Centre, Beckton. The discussion covered:
Current pressures on practices and changes to access
Mr Asser raised access as did the LMC representatives. Everyone agreed that better patient education on what the different roles within general practice do and on other places they can get care would help to an extent. The LMC representatives also explained that increasing the numbers of appointments offered by the same, finite workforce does not necessarily improve patient satisfaction.
Safe working
This covered why some practices are choosing to reduce or stop non-contractual work and how this allows them to better focus on caring for patients. Keeping to 25 appointments per GP, per day was used as an example of quality of care over quantity.
Funding
The LMC members and practice staff explained that more money going into core funding would give practices more freedom to meet the needs of their patients, which is particularly important with a population as diverse as that in Newham. This was contrasted with the numerous strings attached to funding such as ARRS, Mr Asser was surprised by the number of criteria and restrictions attached to it. The impact of the impending employers’ national insurance rise was also covered.
Estates and IT
The host practice was used as an example, Tollgate Medical Centre’s expansion proposal was made two years ago and still not progressed. Underfunding on practices’ IT system was also covered and the lack of weekend IT support for practices commissioned by the ICB. The impact of reduced funding for SMS fragments was explained, with call-and-recall and screening uptake given as examples.
Next steps
Mr Asser is going to raise some of the issues with Ministers in the Department of Health and Social Care and the LMC will continue to feed back on the issue affecting the work of practices across his constituency.
If your practice would be interested in hosting a meeting with your MP please contact [email protected]. You can read more about our political engagement work and awards event held in Parliament here.
Left to right: Dr Tamara Hibbert – Chair of Newham LMC, Dr Alice Verran – GP at Tollgate and Newham LMC rep, James Asser MP, Dr Laura Scott – GP partner at Tollgate and Newham LMC rep and Heena Shaikh – Practice Manager at East End Medical Centre and Newham LMC PM rep.