The Conference of England LMCs full agenda can be read here, including which motions where carried, and the BMA has also provided summaries of what was discussed in break out groups. Recordings of both days should be available on the BMA’s event archive soon.
The following motions were proposed by our LMCs, where a motion is ‘carried’ it means it has the support of the conference and will inform BMA General Practitioners Committee England (GPCE) policy in negotiations with NHS England. Those motions ‘lost’ do not have the support of the conference and will not inform policy. Motions can also be carried ‘in parts’, but this did not happen to any proposed by our LMCs at this conference. The conference took place in three parts: part 1 was the main motions scheduled for debate, part 2 was themed discussions in breakout groups and part 3 saw selected motions from a longer list picked for debate.
Frontline GPs can provide anonymous feedback to the GPCE via their Your Career – Your Future survey which is open until 21 January 2024. Note: this is a parallel piece of work to LMC Conference and it remains important that everyone working in London general practice continues to raise the issues that matter to them via their area’s LMC.
Part 1, Motion 9: Tower Hamlets – private providers of NHS contracts
That conference notes the recent announcements regarding private providers of NHS general practices withdrawing from their contracts and:
- calls for an end to APMS as a contractual option for general practice
- demands that, any new or re-tendered GP core contract is offered as a GMS contract when the
successful applicant is able to hold such a contract - demands that no funding over and above standard GMS should be provided to commercial organisations wishing to run NHS general practice contracts in England.
Carried.
Part 1, Motion 12: Lewisham – GP performers list suspensions
That conference is appalled that GP performers lists suspensions payments are both punitive and inequitable and as a matter of urgency, calls on government to amend these regulations to:
- establish the principle that suspended GPs are entitled to 100% of normal earnings not 90% as per the current regulations
- increase the weekly ceiling on locum payments, so that these are annually set at a realistic level that will fully reimburse the locum payments for the suspended GP
- entitle all GPs to receive suspension payment, including partners who have been expelled from their partnership due to the suspension.
Carried.
Part 1, Motion 17: Waltham Forest – workload
That conference believes that the current workload for general practice is unsustainable, and requests that GPC England negotiates a new GMS contract which focuses on continuity of care, care of long-term conditions, preventative healthcare and end of life care.
Part 3, Motion 17: Waltham Forest – separation of planned and unplanned care
That conference believes that the current workload for general practice is unsustainable, and:
- believes that the time has come to separate acute on-the-day care from planned general practice care
- insists that the separation of care be an essential component of a new GMS Contract
- requests that GPC England negotiates a separate service for the provision of on-the-day acute care for patients currently seen by GPs
- requests that GPC England stipulates that a new GMS contract clearly indicates the situations when a patient would benefit from moving between acute care services and planned care services and the mechanism to enable this.
Lost.
Dr Elliott Singer, one of our medical directors, was also elected as the Chair of the next Conference of England LMCs.