Dear colleagues,
The summer months are slightly quieter in terms of meetings we need to attend, and we have taken advantage of this to have informal, developmental meetings. We have been looking at the way we work as a committee and how this might be improved. In our August meeting we spent some time on stakeholder mapping. This was augmented by meeting an important stakeholder, Mairead Healy, new CEO of Lambeth Healthwatch. The concerns of the public and patients in Lambeth are so often also the concerns of Lambeth general practice that we feel working more closely together should be beneficial for all. We welcomed Mairead.
In addition to chairing Lambeth LMC meetings, I meet regularly with the chairs and vice chairs of the other five borough LMCs in South East London. Since the six CCGs merged to form SEL CCG, these (virtual) meetings have been weekly. Like so many of you, we were horrified to read the recent SEL ICB proposals to reduce support for SMS and AccuRx. We sent a collective email from all six borough chairs to question both the decision and the decision-making process. We know many of you also emailed, and we are all glad that SEL ICB will reconsider. We will seek to be party to the future process.
We have also been very concerned about the ongoing problems with Viapath in Bexley, Lewisham and Greenwich, which with the serious IT failure at GSTT have effectively spilled over into North Lambeth and Southwark also. Representatives from both GSTT and Viapath have come to our meetings to hear our complaints and questions. We will continue to report problems to them, at the same time as we seek assurances from the commissioners that changes will be made such that these significant failures do not recur.
Best wishes,
Dr Penelope Jarrett
Chair
Lambeth LMC