Working in general practice in London at the moment is tough and it’s been tough for quite a few years now. But the care we manage to provide for our patients, and how we support each other, is still amazing. That is why I encourage you to nominate yourself or your colleagues for one of our inaugural London General Practice Awards, launched to shine a light on some of the best examples of real general practice in the Capital.
Not only are we gathering representatives from across general practice in London, we’re hosting the event in Parliament so that the people making the big decisions about the future of the NHS can see just how hard you’re working. It’s also an opportunity to let them know about some of the challenges you face.
At Londonwide LMCs we continue to support GPs and practice teams in a number of ways, from the safe working resources we launched earlier in the year and expanded recently with a new webinar, through to our six-monthly workforce survey (which launched this week), which gives us insight and intel on topical questions and the real challenges of managing the business of general practice on the grounds.
I know many of you can be very modest, often focusing on improving what isn’t up to the high standards we set ourselves, rather than celebrating the many times we exceeded them. But please put that to one side and help us celebrate your hard work!
You may be looking at the categories and wondering if what you’re doing is the kind of work we want to recognise or if now is a good time to highlight the excellent work going on. At Londonwide LMCs I have the privilege of hearing about what’s going on in practices across the Capital. Whether it is a GP who has introduced regular space to enable clinicians to support each other with tricky cases, an LMC member working hard to ensure effective system pathways, a practice manager working with commissioners to demonstrate the value of protected practice learning time, a nurse going above and beyond to educate hard to reach communities on vaccinations or a colleague who has spent their entire career serving their community, this is an opportunity to say thank you. If you are, or you know of, people doing similarly good work then please nominate them by 30 November.
And if you’re interested in joining us at the House of Commons to celebrate London general practice, hear more positive stories like these and have the ear of London MPs please register before Friday 6 December.