Londonwide LMCs

Dear colleagues,

This is the first of our regular newsletter. We would like to introduce you to your Ealing Local Medical Committee and keep you updated with our work.

Our committee:

Dr Mohammad Alzarrad, Lady Margaret Road Surgery
Dr Sonali Bose, Yeading Medical Centre
Dr Sidhartha Datta (EHH Chair), Churchfield Surgery
Dr Jaspreet Dhillon, Featherstone Road Health Centre
Dr Camille Gajria, Sessional
Dr Kamini Gautam, KS Medical Centre
Dr Arim Ismail, Sessional
Dr Mark Mikhail (Ealing Vice Chair), Chepstow Garden Medical Centre
Dr Aparna Pal, Jubilee Gardens Medical Centre
Dr Miraj Patel, Corfton Road Surgery
Dr Ravi Ramnathan, Gordon House Surgery
Dr Vichitar Sanghera, Southall Medical Centre
Dr Sukhpal Shergill (Ealing Chair), Sessional

What is the LMC and what do we do?
The Local Medical Committee (LMC) works on your behalf to represent the interest of all GPs in Ealing. We are here for partners, salaried GPs, locums and all practice staff. If you have a specific practice-related issue then our GP support team may be able to help – they can be contacted at GPSupport@lmc.org.uk.

What has Ealing LMC been working on recently?

I recently had a meeting with Harrow Health about the ADHD services that will be offered to Ealing residents. I am working with my Londonwide LMCs colleagues to ensure that the service addresses patient needs and does not provide another burden to hard pressed GPs.
Local GP Estates – The LMC is seeking to work with the ICB on the issue of a growing population of residents in the PCNs of Southall, Northolt Greenford and Perivale and Action are lacking adequate GP estates to service their needs. This is a problem which if not addressed will only grow and more patients and strained GP services will suffer as a result.
The issue with cross border referrals is continuing to cause problems with practices having their referrals rejected, we have been informed that the ICB will be responding to concerns with a NWL-wide policy by October to address these issues.

At NWL ICB level

Access – The ICB removed the Access offer from the Single Offer and put a pause on their Same Day Access proposals. Londonwide LMCs has fed back on a draft Access specification for 24/25 and are awaiting a response and a possible amended specification which should be shared with wider stakeholders for comment.
NWL ICB Primary-Secondary Care Interface – In addition to the local interface meeting mentioned above there is also a NWL level Interface meeting. There was a meeting of the system interface group on 8 May 2024, which was attended by our myself and my colleague Dr Chaand Nagpaul of Harrow LMC. We were pleased to see a commitment to restart the process to tackle primary/secondary care interface issues affecting GP access, together with the appointment of Claire Hook, the Deputy CEO of the Imperial Healthcare Trust, as Task & Finish Group Chair and interface lead. However, we were disappointed that there were no timescales identified for implementation. There has been no further communication since the meeting.

General Practice Alert State (GPAS) – Anonymised GP led pressures reporting
Over the last year Londonwide LMCs has been rolling out GPAS on behalf of London’s general practice. You can read this piece from my Londonwide LMCs colleague about why practices should sign up to provide data to GPAS.

Here are some of the reasons why your practice should, absolutely, sign up to GPAS:

Practices will be reporting on the pressures they are experiencing in an equivalent way to OPEL.
In July 2023, NHS England announced that there needs to be an OPEL equivalent system for all practices.
Your data being reported via the LMC will ensure that it is confidential and is about systemwide problems.
GPAS is simple to use, and submission of the data will take three minutes weekly.
Every Friday you will receive a report that will show you the trends in the sector, and the LMC will be able to use this to discuss with the ICBs their plans are to support practices.

General practice needs to act now, during this window of opportunity, to implement a system for ourselves led by the LMC. Sign up now via our GPAS sign-up form before you lose this choice.

The BMA non-statutory ballot of GP contract holders has taken place: “Are you prepared to undertake one or more examples of collective action as outlined in the BMA campaign to Protect Your Patients, Protect Your Practice?”

Alongside the ballot will be information about a menu of actions which will not breach GP contracts, but which collectively, will have a significant impact on ‘the system’. The time to act is now! More information can be found here.

Resources available

Get in touch!
All constituents can raise any issues of concern with the LMC at any time. It would be great to hear from constituents on any feedback or issue you may have from operational concerns with NWL Enhanced Services Single Offer. Please feel free to contact ian.oakley@lmc.org.uk.

Thank you for those of you who contact Ealing LMC committee members about issues as they arise. We rely on you to know where support is needed and are grateful for your queries. Please do reach out to LMC members or Ian. We are keen to hear from our local GPs and practice teams about any issues you are facing. We are here to represent your views.

Yours faithfully,

Dr Sukhpal Shergill
Ealing LMC Chair

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