Avon LMCs Newsletter on 21-08-24

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The ALMC Newsletter

Welcome to our weekly newsletter, sharing the latest news and topics of interest for practices.

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– LATEST NEWS –

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A huge thank you to all practices completing the LMC Collective Action Survey. We received a whopping 87% return which is a powerful mandate for BNSSG practices to act collectively. We will discuss the most popular actions in more detail at our LMC Members event on 10th September, so please ensure two members of each practice are signed up for this.

It appears that everyone apart from GPs is given the task of “fixing” general practice. We’ve had Matt Hancock telling us all we need is apps and on-line consultations, we’ve had Sajid Javid wanting to charge patients to see a GP employed by a hospital trust, and now we have Tony Blair wanting outcome based primary care contracts with a combined list size of 250,000. It makes PCN’s look like corner shops!

It was good to share some reflective headspace with our colleagues at One Care and the ICB within our facilitated joint working meeting. I deliberately left my laptop behind at this face-to-face meeting, and it brought home the importance of staying in the moment and being fully present. Anyone who has met me will know I am the queen of multi-tasking, but all of us need to balance the convenience of remote working, with the cognitive overload of managing multiple tasks.

“If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.” – Amit Ray

Dr Shaba Nabi
Chair Avon LMC

We received an 87% return on this survey, and these are the top five preferred collective actions:

1. Switch off GP Connect functionality to permit entry of coding into the GP Clinical Record by 3rd party providers (already done by most practices)
2. Cease to engage with any activity that should be carried out by another provider – eg: prescribing, follow-up investigations, referrals, fit notes
3. Stop supporting the system at the expense of your business and staff – serve notice on any voluntary services currently undertaken that plug local commissioning gaps. Top three selected for this were:
   1. Unfunded NHS shared care prescribing
   2. Post bariatric surgery monitoring
   3. Physical health monitoring for patients under AWP and CAMHS
4. Freeze sign-up to any new data sharing agreements or local system data sharing platforms. Withdraw permission for data sharing agreements which exclusively use data for secondary purposes
5. Limit daily patient contacts per clinician to 25

We will discuss the above actions in more detail at our LMC Members’ event on 10th September, where we will explore the pros and cons of each action and understand the barriers for practices. Although practices are free to start any of the actions from the BMA options, it is likely to be more impactful if we work collectively. The LMC is also keen to serve a notice period on activities that are not commissioned, but practices have been undertaking, to allow for the safe transition of patient care.

Thank you to those of you who have signed up already. We would like to have representation from every single practice in BNSSG and the registration form for this was emailed to practice managers last week.

If your practice has not received this, please email info@almc.co.uk

Our Annual General Meeting is scheduled to take place remotely on 16th September from 18.30 – 19.30. This meeting is open to all Avon LMC members but there will be one vote per practice. As well as ratification of an amended constitution, there will be an update on the financial landscape for Avon LMC.

We will be sending out a registration form nearer the time.

Please find the attached for details.

Question: We were recently asked to verify an expected death in a patient who was being managed by the community nurse team. As our duty GP was busy that day, this resulted in delays for the family. Are GPs obliged to verify all deaths?

Answer: The law states that you do not need to be medically qualified to verify a death and this can be carried out by any competent adult. The BMA  and the RCN have produced guidance on this. Verification of death is different to certification of death, which requires a medical professional, and now needs to go through the Medical Examiner system process.

• 10th September 2024: Members event for Collective Action – BAWA, 19.00 – 21.00
• 11th September 2024: Motion deadline for England LMC Conference
• 16th September 2024: Virtual Annual General Meeting Avon LMC, 18.30 – 19.30
• 24th September 2024: Virtual LMC drop in, 13.00 – 14.00
• 12th November 2024: Virtual LMC drop in, 13.00 – 14.00
• 22nd November 2024: England LMC Conference – London, all day
• 14th January 2025: Virtual LMC drop in, 13.00 – 14.00
• 11th March 2025: Virtual LMC drop in, 13.00 – 14.00

• Tuesday 20 August General practice bulletin (mailchi.mp)
• Thursday 15 August General practice bulletin – update (mailchi.mp)

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– LATEST TRAINING AND EVENTS –

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• 2 September / Project Management for Clinicians
  Sign Up Form
• 4 September / Introduction to Supervision of Advanced Practitioners
  Sign Up Form
• 12 September / BNSSG Cancer Lead Forum
  Sign Up Form
• 17 September / BCYP EduForum: Antibiotic Stewardship in Paediatrics
  Sign Up Form
• 18 September / Safeguarding Level 3
  Sign Up Form
• 18 September / Pelvic and Spinal Masqueraders
  Sign Up Form
• 19 September / Dermoscopy Training – Part 1
  Sign Up Form
• 25 September / End of Life Teaching Day with Weston Hospice
  Sign Up Form
• 26 September / Introduction to Personalised Care AARS Role and Health Coaching
  Sign Up Form

Please see here for full event details.
For further information please contact Bnssg.training.hub@nhs.net

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