Dear Colleague,
I am writing to introduce the members of your newly elected Merton Local Medical Committee:
- Dr Marek Jarzembowski (Chair)
- Dr Paul Alford (Vice-Chair)
- Dr Carrie Chill
- Dr Elizabeth Higham
- Dr Andrew Otley
- Dr Martin Wong
- Dr Elisabeth Wood
Appointed practice manager observers are Dawn Defontaine and Barbara Young.
In these very challenging times there has never been a greater need for an effective LMC that will represent the interests of all its constituents, be they GP principals, salaried GPs, sessional GPs, GPs in training, partnerships, practices and organisations such as PCNs or federations.
Merton LMC members are absolutely committed to fulfilling this duty to the best of our individual and collective ability. We would like to build on our communication with you to improve our mutual dialogue.
We would like to invite you to nominate a named “point of contact” from your practice with whom the LMC will maintain an ongoing dialogue, thus mutually sharing matters of interest between the LMC and your practice.
In this way we believe that the practice will have a greater understanding of the issues the LMC is dealing with. It is also an avenue for the LMC to be made aware of issues and problems that are affecting the practice.
This approach will help identify challenges, potentially facilitating their resolution or mitigation, and provide the LMC the opportunity to work on what matters to you.
Merton LMC has a formal meeting every two months. We would like to make an offer for the practice to contribute to the discussions and agenda. To this end, the Committee will write to the nominated “point of contact” about three weeks before each formal LMC meeting. Although not every issue submitted in this way will be set as a separate agenda item, however, by collating this information, trends and commonalties may be identified and addressed.
Please note that this is not the only way to raise issues with the LMC. All constituents can raise any issues of concern with the LMC at any time, you do not need to wait until you hear from us prior to the formal LMC meeting, especially if the issue is urgent. Furthermore, the usual sources of support through Londonwide LMCs remain available.
This proposal is additional and entirely voluntary. The Committee believes that having closer contacts in this way will help facilitate and improve the Committee’s effectiveness on protecting the voice of general practice in Merton.
Please feel free to comment on these suggestions, either directly to me, or to our Londonwide LMCs’ colleagues who support the Committee in its work: David.Moore@lmc.org.uk or Nicola.Rice@lmc.org.uk. If you are happy to provide a point of contact please pass the contact details to David or Nicola.
Thank you for your attention. I and the other committee members look forward to working with you over the next two year term.
Marek Jarzembowski
Chair
Merton Local Medical Committee