Londonwide LMCs

Dear colleagues,

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

Our committee:

Dr Kyla Cranmer, Salaried, HFP Park Medical Centre
Dr Seth Dassanayake, Partner, The New Surgery
Dr David Mummery, Sessional
Dr Maira Salman, Salaried, HFP North End Medical Centre
Dr Paul Skinner, Partner, West Kensington
Dr Rahna Rehman, Sessional
Dr Antonia Wade, 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 Hammersmith and Fulham. 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 Hammersmith and Fulham LMC been working on recently?

With the recent measles outbreak and the requirement for mask fitting on GP practices. The LMC has raised the issue of costs and lack of support from the ICB with the Borough Team. The Borough Team have agreed to escalate the issue on our behalf. The LLMC have also raised this nationally with NHSE and the BMA.
Local Enhanced Services (LES). We are working with the local NWL ICB Borough Team to ensure that new LES contracts are implemented in a constructive manner to ensure that practices can operate them and receive the required funding to do so. We have raised specific concerns about the respiratory contract which we are waiting for a final outcome on but are expecting changes to the contract line.

At NWL ICB level

Access. The NWL ICB removed the Access offer from the Single Offer and put a pause on their Same Day Access proposals. LLMCs 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. 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 and in the January Londonwide LMCs newsletter, I wrote 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 link to the full article is here.

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 Hammersmith and Fulham 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 Kyla Cranmer
Hammersmith and Fulham LMC Chair

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