Avon LMCs Newsletter on 17-04-24

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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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I hope many of you managed to have some downtime over the Easter holiday period to recharge and refresh. I spent a lovely week visiting family in sunny Southend-on-Sea, as well as cooking for Eid. But the best bit about it was switching on my “out of office” for emails and archiving all my work WhatsApp groups – I would highly recommend it!

My first day back at work this week was a long duty day, and I couldn’t help but reflect on both the intensity and cognitive load of our work. The demand feels relentless and it’s challenging to strike a balance between ensuring ease of patient access and preventing the floodgates of digital consultations at the end of a smart phone. Of course, none of this would be an issue if our contract sufficiently funded the activity levels within general practice, but we are stuck with a formula funding 2-3 patient consults per year, instead of the current average of 7-8. We desperately need a GP contract which is fit for the future and ensures the sustainability of the independent contractor model.

If you haven’t already done so, please consider joining the BMA to fight for a fair and safe contract.

Dr Shaba Nabi
Chair Avon LMC

The annual UK LMC Conference is taking place down the road in the Celtic Manor Hotel, Newport, this year on 23^rd and 24^th May. This is an opportunity to hear some lively debate on current GP issues before voting to form policy for GPC UK. You can also network with colleagues across the four nations at the evening black tie event.

We have a couple of places available for any GP wishing to attend so please email info@almc.co.uk if you are interested.

Question: We are facing an increase in workload as a result of patients seeking medical care privately. Some of them are asking us to request investigations or take over monitoring of medications. Do you have any advice for this?

Answer: It is up to an individual GP to agree to any investigation request; if you are not satisfied, then this must be declined. Regarding prescribing and monitoring of medications requested privately, it is reasonable to continue if these are common medications initiated in general practice that you feel competent to continue. (eg: green on formulary traffic light status such as ACE inhibitors for hypertension). However, if these are specialist medications requiring shared care (amber on formulary), there are a number of challenges with sharing care with a private provider which include:

• Ensuring quality assurance and governance of the private provider
• The lack of enduring care by the private provider which depends on patients self-funding
• Creating a two-tiered system if patients with the resources to fund private referrals can access maintenance medication faster than via the NHS route
• The capacity issues within general practice which is not resourced to meet the additional demand from the private sector

In anticipation of forthcoming CQC visits, One Care’s access, resilience and quality (ARQ) team has produced a toolkit to help practices assess how prepared they are.

This can be used as a self-assessment tool, or if you need help with it, please contact practice.support@onecare.org.uk

Guidance on how to use the TeamNet CQC tracker can be found here.

For more information or guidance please contact digital@onecare.org.uk

General Practice is genuinely in crisis, with the capacity being massively outstripped by demand for a number of reasons.  Despite that, the reception teams still often struggle to get patients to see clinicians other than GPs – even though most practices now have access to a wide range of them.

Right Care, First Time is the latest media campaign from IGPM aiming to help educate patients on this thorny issue.  The Campaign poster and video is available to access below.

For those practices with IGPM members, there will also be a range of other resources available. There is also a version of the video that IGPM members can download to show on your waiting room TV.

Please download the Press release here.

If anyone has any thoughts or questions on the campaign, please do speak to Peter Maynard at peter.maynard1@nhs.net

Effective September 9, 2024, new regulations require Medical Examiner (ME) scrutiny before registering non-coronial deaths in England and Wales. Ensure compliance by engaging with the BNSSG ME Service. For details, refer to the attached document. For inquiries, contact:

T: 0117 4140074
E: nbn-tr.medicalexaminer@nhs.net

Please find Important Changes to Death Certification Process here.

Read the latest GPC England bulletin here.

Avon LMC extends heartfelt wishes to all colleagues observing Ram Navami, predicted to be celebrated today, as well as Pesach, falling on Tuesday and Wednesday (23rd & 24th).

• Thursday 11 April: General practice bulletin (mailchi.mp)
• Tuesday 16 April: General practice bulletin (mailchi.mp)

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– LATEST TRAINING AND EVENTS –

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Join Dr. Ruth Bowen (CYP GP Fellow, BNSSG Training Hub) as she interviews local specialists from around Bristol, North Somerset, and South Gloucestershire on a range of topics related to primary care paediatrics. 

Episode #10 – CYP Health Inequalities with Helen Tapson

“We are all in the same storm but we are not all in the same boat”. What local and national projects are striving to tackle health inequalities in Children and Young People? What part do we play in Primary Care? Play on to find out more as South Gloucestershire Public Health consultant and Lead for Health Inequalities in CYP Helen Tapson guides us through the challenging topic of CYP health inequalities: highlighting exciting current national and local projects  and using cases to explore practical tips and resources to empower us in Primary Care.

BNSSG Paeds Pod is now available on a range of podcast directories, including Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts, and YouTube and on our podcast webpage.

BNSSG Training Hub are pleased to announce the first episode of BNSSG Good News has been released. To view the first episode, please click here.
 
Led by Dr. Irorho Mousah (GP Retention Fellow), BNSSG Training Hub is keen to raise awareness of the fantastic work being carried out in primary care, whether it’s in a GP surgery or otherwise. If you have some news you want to share, complete our form; tell us how it’s impacted your team and / or your patient population, and we can circulate the story on your behalf.

To share your good news from BNSSG primary care, please click here.

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