Humberside LMC Manifesto for General Practice in our Integrated Care System
Publication date: June 2022
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Today we are publishing our new manifesto setting out our vision for general practice as we approach the implementation of Integrated Care Systems on 1 July 2022.
Humberside LMC Manifesto for General Practice in our Integrated Care System
Workforce and wellbeing
• We need to retain the excellent workforce we have and urgently recruit new GPs by widening the funding to attract doctors to parts of our region where there have been consistent shortages of trainees. ARRS plays an important role but must not be allowed to detract from the crisis in GP recruitment and retention. The Fuller stocktake report references the workforce crisis and we need to see engagement across the general practice workforce to co-create a local and ICS workforce plan.
• Our survey of local GPs told us that high workload, fear of complaints and low staffing levels are leading to low morale & burnout across the profession. The LMC believe we need continuous funding for resilience support for GPs and the wider medical and support workforce in primary care.
Primary/Secondary Interface
• The LMC believe that primary and secondary healthcare providers in our region could work better together. Whilst relationships are developing across providers, we need to see urgent action to stop uncontracted work flowing into primary care and a greater system understanding of primary care pressures. We know there is a willingness from practitioners across our system to communicate, integrate and evolve to provide a better patient care experience. The LMC want to work with ICS at Place and providers to improve this integration and invite all stakeholders to embrace this opportunity and call to action. ICS and Place are critical to the success of this.
Premises
• An historical underinvestment in premises and increasing demand for accommodation for new PCN and ARRS roles is placing an unsustainable demand on our primary care estate. The current NHS three year capital funding equates to £6,000 per practice per year for BAU and GPIT and this is simply not enough. The LMC would like long term realistic capital funding to meet the needs of patient care and a premises charging administration which is responsive, transparent and fair. Estates strategies at neighbourhood and Place need external support and funding to develop – this burden cannot sit with PCNs and CDs who have insufficient resources. Funding processes need to be simple and agile.
IT and Infrastructure
• The LMC is concerned about the impact of digital health providers on our local system and the impact of a digital gateway to access healthcare which could amplify health inequalities. Continuity of care lies at the centre of traditional general practice, with local surgeries or scaled providers providing person-centred care from the heart of communities. We want to see a well-integrated and mixed provision which serves the need of all of our patient population.
• Effective primary care should be built on a stable and integrated IT platform. The LMC supports a case for fast and reliable infrastructure integrated across the whole healthcare system with controlled access to patient records by all practitioners.
You can also download our manifesto for general practice in our Integrated Care System.