News Items
LMC Manifesto for General Practice
Humberside LMCs today publishes its manifesto for general practice.
Workforce and wellbeing
• We need to retain the excellent workforce we have and recruit new GPs by widening the bursary funding to attract doctors to parts of our region where there have been consistent shortages of trainees. The LMC welcome work force investment benefitting every practice to support the training of current reception and clerical staff to play a greater role in navigation of patients and handling clinical paperwork to free up GP time.
• In our August survey GPs told us that high workload, fear of complaints and low staffing levels are leading to low morale & burnout across the profession. The LMC would 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. 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 commissioners and providers to improve this integration and invite all stakeholders to embrace this opportunity.
Pensions
• The pensions taxation crisis means that doctors are being forced to turn down vital extra shifts caring for patients in our under-pressure GP surgeries because they would be literally paying to go to work. Doctors are trapped in a dilemma between wanting to care for patients and not wanting to end up financially worse off. The LMC support the work of the BMA to lobby Government to deliver pension taxation reform and for pensions administration to change to offer a responsive, timely and accurate service to GPs.
Premises
• An historical underinvestment in premises and increasing demand for accommodation for new PCN roles is placing an unsustainable demand on our primary care estate. The charges levied on premises are frequently difficult to understand and non-negotiable. 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.
IT and Infrastructure
• The LMC is concerned about the impact of digital health providers on our local system. Continuity of care lies at the centre of traditional general practice, with local surgeries providing person-centred care from the heart of communities. We would highlight the risk that digital only practices poses to this and 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.
LMC Newsletter November 2019
The November issue of the LMC newsletter is now available. Included in the latest news, updates and events:
- Invitation to complete our 2019 LMC survey
- A number of medication supply alerts practices need to be aware of
- Changes to the the community pharmacy contract and patients with diabetes
LMC Survey 2019
GPs and practice managers in the Humber region are invited to take part in our annual survey to shape the work of the LMC.
The survey is a key method we use to assess our services to general practitioners and identify how we can improve. We study all the feedback we receive and use the results to help set the LMC’s priorities for the coming year.
Last year’s survey helped identify a number of key areas which we have been working hard to deliver since then:
- Supporting practices with the major changes underway in general practice through the new GP contract and formation of PCNs
- New resilience programme of training and support for GPs and practice managers
- New ways to engage with our constituent GPs and practices, including an improved website with access to a greater range of content
The closing date for responses is Friday 13th December 2019.
Click on the link below to take the survey. You can complete the survey on phones and tablets as well as your desktop.
General Election Purdah - Advice for Primary Care Networks
Humberside LMCs would like to provide advice on the impact of pre-election purdah on PCNs.
Purdah has implications for NHS organisations, including the arm's-length bodies such as NHS England, CQC and NHS Improvement over this period. During these periods, communications either in the form of announcements or activities by NHS organisations should be avoided if they could influence, or be regarded as influencing, the outcome of elections. Public authorities should avoid situations that may provide opportunities for party political benefit.
PCNs are not public sector bodies. A PCN is essentially a contractual joint venture between the member practices. The Cabinet Office guidance on purdah does not formally apply to PCNs since it is aimed at civil servants and the board members and staff of Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs) and other arms’ length bodies. However, the NHS cannot prevent GPs from political activity, and the RCGP has launched its own campaign for GPs to back candidates that will support investment in general practice. Ultimately, if GPs and PCNs decide that they do want to participate in political activity during the pre-election period they are free to do so.
Our advice is however that it would be prudent for PCNs to observe the key principles of the Cabinet Office guidance during the pre-election period.
Do
• Confine your communication activities and announcements to those necessary for the safety and quality of patient care.
• Consider whether you will allow visits from all your local prospective councillors/local political parties/campaign groups and what format they will take. It is your decision whether to invite them or not. If you do, remember to keep your policy around visits consistent and impartial.
• Keep any communications with local candidates/political parties/campaign groups to a factual and apolitical basis – apply the same approach to any communications with the media and in the public sphere.
• Continue to conduct normal business and adhere to good governance and regulation.
• Continue to plan campaigns post purdah.
• Familiarise yourself with the official guidance from the Cabinet Office.
Don't
• Undertake any activity that could be considered politically controversial or influential, or could give rise to criticism that public resources are being used for party political/campaigning purposes. For example, allowing certain public awareness activities that could be deemed party political, market research and public rallies, and producing election materials or canvassing.
• Be selective if you are inviting local prospective councillors/political parties/campaign groups to your premises – invitations should be sent to all or none.
• Allow party political meetings to take place on your organisation’s premises.
• Allow visits by local candidates/political parties, national and local politicians or campaign groups to your organisation to interrupt services or care for patients – make sure your staff are aware of any visits in advance.
• Launch large-scale PR campaigns during this period.
Please contact LMC if you have any questions.
LMC Newsletter October 2019
The October issue of the LMC newsletter is now available. Included in the latest issue:
- New LMC events and training, including Better Conversations training
- Opportunity to become a GP mentor and receive training
- News on flu vaccinations for GP practice staff
Humberside LMC Resilience Support – Appeal for GP Mentors/Coaches
Humberside LMCs invites you to apply to attend a two day Mentor Training course with a view to becoming a self-employed paid mentor for GP-S. GP-S is a free peer mentoring and coaching service for GPs due to launch in Humberside in early 2020.
The service will give all GPs in the area access to a free trained peer mentor/coach for four sessions of face to face support lasting two hours at a time.
Sessions can be used for any problem or opportunity an individual feels they may have, from career or personal development to stress and work/life balance. Everything discussed within GP-S is kept confidential.
To help set up this service, GP-S and Humberside LMC are looking to recruit a number of local GPs to become self-employed paid mentors for the scheme. All Humberside GPs are eligible to apply for the positions. Mentors will need enough time to complete two-hour mentoring sessions away from practice and will be able to determine the distance they feel able to travel.
Once GPs have applied for a position they may be invited to attend a two day training and assessment course. The GP-S potential mentor training and assessment course takes place over two full days on 16th and 17th January 2020. Delegates will need to attend both dates to have the opportunity to progress.
The course will cover mentoring and coaching techniques and focus on the Egan model. On the first day delegates will learn key skills and cement the knowledge already gathered through the pre-course learning materials. The second day will give everyone a chance to practice the model as a client, mentor and observer. Through this, delegates will be assessed to determine if they would be suitable for the role of mentor with GP-S locally.
The course is intensive but highly rewarding and previous delegate feedback has praised the safe and informal learning space created by GP-S trainers.
The training is due to take place on Thursday 16th and Friday 17th January 2020 at the LMCs Boardroom, Albion House, Albion Lane, Willerby, HU10 6TS.
If you’d be interested in attending the course to potentially become a GP-S mentor for Humberside GPs, please email contact@gp-s.org by Friday 29th November 2019 to receive an expression of interest form.
Tier 2 Visa Reimbursements - Deadline Extended
Please note that NHSE have extended the deadline for Tier 2 visa reimbursements from 31/01/2020 to 31/03/2020. They will soon be issuing an updated reimbursement form and process, which will also reflect the reduced Tier 2 fees from when GPs were added to the Shortage Occupation List from 6 October.
See our news item of 04/09/2019 (below) for more details on Tier 2 Visas or visit our Tier 2 Visas Guidance page .
