Redbridge LMC newsletter – June 2024

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Redbridge newsletter for June covers community dermatology, shared care, A&G, service directory and more.

Dear colleagues,

Here is the June newsletter from Redbridge LMC, particularly the Chair, Dr Najib Seedat (Ilford Medical Centre), and the newsletter reps Dr Dania Shoeb (The Willows Medical Practice) and Dr Shujah Hameed (Seven Kings Practice).

DMC Community Dermatology Services
There were considerable concerns about dermatology pathways, especially A&G, raised by GPs in the borough when patients started coming to surgeries with rejection letters after DMC implemented changes agreed with commissioners. The LMC has told commissioners that there needs to be more engagement and communication with GPs to avoid problems or at least give some notice. Engagement is ongoing to underline this point and establish what is being done to improve the pathways.

Shared care
Concerns have been growing about shared care, including unresourced work transfer and the involvement of medications that are challenging for GPs to manage. Shared Care agreements require the agreement of all parties, including primary care, secondary care and the patient. The practices in at least one PCN in Redbridge have decided collectively that they will not in general take on new shared care agreements. Other options for practices include setting policies about types of agreement which enable quick response to requests. There is guidance from Londonwide LMCs on shared care agreements here.

Advice & guidance/ advice & referral
LMC members have begun to meet regularly with secondary care colleagues to understand each other’s issues and find solutions together, and Advice & Guidance has been an immediate topic. GPs have asked consultants to provide clear responses, including whether a patient will be seen or not and the timelines. Consultants have asked that GPs not use A&G channels for non-clinical purposes, including chasing up when patients are going to be seen.

There is some guidance on A&G for practices on the Londonwide LMCs website here.

GP Support
The LMC was briefed at its last meeting on support services available for general practice from Londonwide LMCs. Information is available here here.

Public Health commissioned sexual health services
The LMC is talking with LB Redbridge public health team to seek a viable offer for performing services such as insertion and removal of Long-Acting Removable Contraceptives.

LMC Engagement with trainee VTS and Redbridge PLE
The Redbridge LMC has been in conversations to have a quarterly slot to give updates to the local community at the PLE events – details to follow.

We had a recent training sessions with the Ilford VTS on 18 June on the role and importance of the LMC to the doctors of tomorrow – we aim to encourage representation from all sectors.

Genomic medicine
The LMC met with the North Thames Genomic Medicine Service, which aims for quicker, more accurate diagnoses or even prediction of certain conditions, precision matching of patients to the most effective interventions and better understanding of the underlying causes of conditions. LMCs members are now in talks to lead PCN pilots of a new referral form to access this service via ERS.

Service directory update
In response to the pressures being seen in our Emergency Departments, particularly Whipps, we have updated the key alternatives to ED service directory for GPs. It includes contacts for Whipps, BHRUT and urgent community services. This replaces documents previously circulated (e.g. GP winter pack) and those which were available on the old BHR GP UEC intranet page. The information is hosted on the NHS NE London Primary Care Portal Redbridge UEC Services Contact Information – North East London (icb.nhs.uk).

Upcoming LMC training events

Live details can be found here.

General Practice Alert State – anonymised GP-led pressures reporting
Over the last year Londonwide LMCs has been rolling out GPAS on behalf of London’s general practice. It is to identify and track the pressures area-wide in general practice and flag them to NHS partners, as hospital and ambulance trusts do with their OPEL system. NHS England is requiring ICBs to have a reporting system for general practice, and we hope to establish GPAS in this role, as it is general-practice-run, confidential and anonymous, while we cannot be confident that an ICB-established system would be. In GPAS, practice-level data is not passed to the ICB, only borough-wide aggregates.

GPAS is simple to use and takes on average 2-3 minutes per week in response to a data request email. Practices receive a copy of the weekly situation report with the borough- and sector-wide pressure levels. The LMC uses this report to press the NHS system for support where and when needed. Currently, the numbers of practices participating need to be higher across NEL to make a more compelling case. Redbridge has a good participation rate, but there are still around 20% of the borough’s practices not signed up, and some signed-up practices do not respond so updated contacts may be needed.  There is more information at this article by the LMC’s Medical Director Dr Elliott Singer, and you can sign up (or update your contacts) here.

LMC information
You can find information about LMC members, contact channels, meeting dates and so on at our web page.

If you have any feedback on the above, or anything you wish to bring to the attention of the LMC, you can contact via the Committee Liaison Executive ian.williamson@lmc.org.uk.

Best wishes,

Dr Najib Seedat, Chair, Redbridge LMC

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