Avon LMCs Newsletter on 14-02-24

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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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Let me start by wishing you all a Happy Galantine’s Day – a day to honour the power of female friendships. It feels so empowering for my teenage daughter to be having fun with her friends today, rather than worrying about Valentine’s cards. 
 
In national news, GPC England continues to negotiate the 2024/25 GP contract, following the understandable rejection of the 1.9% pay uplift, which doesn’t remotely cover rising practice costs. The plan is to put this contract out to a referendum in early March, open to all BMA members.  There is a BMA web page to explain this. Please join the BMA if you want your voice to be heard. This is not just a matter for GP Partners; as a salaried GP myself, I know that my salary depends on the global sum, so it’s in my interests to fight for this. 
 
You will notice the new standing item in our newsletter: “You asked, We said”. The purpose of this is to distil the everyday questions we get at the LMC, in an anonymous fashion, so that responses can be disseminated in a meaningful way. In time, we would like to have more of this type of information on the Avon LMC website, which will be developed to create a more useful and interactive resource. 
 
Shaba Nabi
Chair Avon LMC

The national Medical Examiner system is being introduced in England and Wales from April 1st, and Avon LMC is keen to assist practices with the implementation of this. Please write to info@lmc.co.uk if you have any questions about this process as we are planning develop a podcast of FAQs to share with practices.

PSA Monitoring
 
Question: How do we safely monitor PSA in patients discharged from secondary care without a substantial increase in workload. There have been a couple of practice significant events around this
 
Answer: There are 2 main issues here, which I will cover in turn: the patient safety aspect and the contractual aspect.

• Patient safety aspect

To ensure surveillance of previously abnormal PSA results, some kind of register needs to be established. As you have alluded, the ideal option is for this to be within a QOF register as it would also be funded. In the absence of a QOF register, I suspect many practices set up recalls for these patients using the near patient testing codes – in the same way as we recall patients requiring high risk drugs monitoring. I agree this is a significant workload which is currently unfunded.

• Contractual aspect

The ongoing surveillance of PSA monitoring within general practice, following normal fast track investigations, remains one of the contributors of the increased workload from secondary to primary care workload shift. This, amongst other areas, is on the LMC’s radar, but we need to prioritise our approach to this interface work. The real risk here is that the longer general practice does something, it is viewed as “business as usual” and much harder to change. However, the case for change would be to highlight the variation in practice leading to patient safety issues, to campaign for local and national solutions.

The UK LMC Conference will be down the road from us this year in Newport on 23^rd and 24^th May. This is a chance for LMCs from all four nations to come together to debate GP issues pertinent to all UK nations. 
 
The deadline for submitting motions for debate to info@lmc.co.uk is 27^th February. If you do not feel confident crafting a motion, just email us with your thoughts and we can help you with this. 
 
We have a few places available for attendance at conference and priority will go to those GPs who have not previously attended an LMC Conference.

This is to reiterate that LMC UK Services and Sapern HR are no longer affiliated with Avon LMC, so we are unable to respond to any queries arising from the services they provide.

See attached.

Avon LMC is aware of the email that has been sent by Sapern HR to state they will no longer be processing DBS checks. Please rest assured that we are planning to take on this role as soon as possible, and we will update you when we are ready to do so. 

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