Dear Colleagues,
This is the first of our regular newsletter. We would like to introduce you to your Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster (KCW) Local Medical Committee and keep you updated with our work.
Our committee:
Westminster LMC
- Dr Krishan Aggarwal, Sessional, King’s College Health Centre
- Dr Melinda Crème, Partner, Paddington Green Health Centre
- Dr Anouska Hari, Sessional, Chair of KCW LMC
- Dr Mike Nosa-Ehima, Partner, St John’s Wood Medical Practice
- Dr Paul O’Reilly, Partner, Cardinal Hume Health Centre
- Dr Gokulan Phoenix, Sessional, Woodford Road Surgery
- Dr Neveen Rady, Salaried, Compton Medical Centre
- Dr Mona Vaidya, Partner, King’s College Health Centre
Kensington and Chelsea LMC
- Dr Alisha Khanna, Sessional Trainee, Abingdon Medical Practice
- Dr Puvana Rajakulendran, Partner, Earl’s Court Medical Centre
- Dr Yasmin Razak, Partner, Golborne Medical Centre
- Dr Khalid Sadek, Salaried, King’s Road Medical Centre
- Dr William Squier, Salaried King, Knightsbridge Medical Centre
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 the KCW Boroughs. 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 [email protected].
At a borough level:
- A key aim of the KCW LMC is ensure that the ‘levelling up’ agenda across NWL ICB does not lead to any loss of funding for practices and PCNs in the two Boroughs. A central tenet of the LMC’s approach is that it is ‘levelling up’ not ‘levelling out’ of funding, therefore we lobby that any movement of services to the NWL Single Offer should not result in a loss of overall funding for KCW.
- LMC Conferences. KCW LMC members attend LMC conferences and submit motions to highlight issues impacting GPs and General Practice. KCW submitted an emergency motion for the England LMC conference this November, highlighting and challenging the government’s decision to include GP practices in the National Insurance increase, while protecting the rest of the NHS.
- Premises issues. We are acutely aware of the very high-cost premises face, due to rents and property prices in central and west London. If you have any problems relating to these premises, even if not cost related, please get in touch and we can try to help.
- Access. The NWL ICB removed the Access offer from the Single Offer and put a pause on their Same Day Access proposals. The ICB has decided to re-badge Same Day Access as Modern General Practice. For GPs to obtain the funds PCNs have until 5 pm the 10th January 2025 to submit Expressions of Access. This funding needs to be spent in the financial year 24/25. This is a fast-developing situation, so please look out for e alerts and e mails from Londonwide LMC with further information.
- BMA Collective Action. GPs voted overwhelmingly, in a BMA vote, to undertake Collective Action in light of the years of underfunding and overworking of General Practice. Collective Action is not Industrial Action, as GPs are not employed directly by the NHS. It seeking to take steps which are in line with GPs contractual obligations but express dissatisfaction with the current arrangements. One example is limiting the number of daily contacts. When undertaken this often improves patient satisfaction levels, as Doctors have more time with their patients. The purpose of the Collective Action is to ensure a long term sustainable future for GPs and their patients. It is hoped Collective Action will be ended with a negotiation with the government.
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. Dr Elliot Singer is Londonwide LMCs’ Medical Director for GPAS and a GP in Northeast London.
Resources available
- Patient information videos
- GP and Practice staff training
- Advertise practice vacancies for free
- Safety First – Safety Resource Pack including a new webinar added last month.
London General Practice Awards
We have already had more than 100 nominations for the inaugural awards that are being run by Londonwide LMCs. Thank you to those who have submitted nominations, if you have not already nominated yourself and/or a colleague then please do so by Saturday.
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 Borough operational concerns with NWL Enhanced Services Single Offer. Please feel free to contact [email protected].
Yours faithfully,
Dr Anouska Hari, Chair – KCW LMC