Avon LMCs Newsletter on 18-09-24

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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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What a treat to have a bit of the summer back. Fortunately, I took Monday afternoon off as leave to allow me to attend the LMC AGM and Committee Meetings, so it was great to take the dog for a walk before a long evening of meetings.

September has been an extremely busy month for Avon LMC so far, with the members’ event followed by the AGM within a week, and it was good to see so much engagement for both events.

GP Collective Action is at the forefront of most people’s minds at the moment, and we are pleased to be sharing our timeline for action with you this week. If you would like to discuss this further, we would encourage you to attend our LMC virtual drop-in session on 24/09/24 which is open to practice staff only.

“When you do nothing, you feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when you get involved, you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment that comes from knowing you are working to make things better” – Maya Angelou

Dr Shaba Nabi
Chair Avon LMC

We had a good turnout for this virtual meeting and the following areas were discussed:

• LMC activities and priorities over the last twelve months
• LMC future priorities
• Ratification of accounts
• Ratification of revised constitution

The revised constitution will be shared with the membership next week.

Please feel free to drop in whilst you are on your lunch break to hear more about next steps for GP Collective action and any other hot topics.

Please click here to join Teams meeting. 

Following on from the Avon LMC Collective Action survey, as well as feedback from the recent members’ event, we now have a clear steer for GP Collective Action. This steer was discussed in collaboration with our colleagues at One Care, who are also committed to supporting practices with this.

This steer includes a timeline for “go live” dates, as well as resources which need to be in place prior to this. The “go live” dates are as follows:

• From now:
  • Discuss any new data sharing agreements with LMC/One Care
  • Start working up plans within your practice to move to the approach outlined within the BMA Safe Working Guidance. Avon LMC will share a brief summary about this in future

• 04/11/24:
  • Use a single generic referral form for all providers
  • Pushback of work transferred from secondary/community care

• 06/01/25:
  • Stop unfunded interface work of
    • No new initiation of shared care prescribing if no LES
    • No new bariatric surgery monitoring if no LES
    • No physical monitoring for AWP/CAMS

Please join us at the next virtual LMC drop-in on 24/09/24 if you wish to discuss this further.

Please click here for Avon LMC Recommendations.

Question: Can we withdraw from exceptional funding applications as part of GP Collective Action?

Answer: Exceptional funding is a bit of a complex area owing to the standard NHS contract which states:

Acceptance and Rejection of Referrals

6.13 Subject to SC6.8 and to SC7 (Withholding and/or Discontinuation of Service), the Provider must:

6.13.1 accept any Referral of a Service User made in accordance with the Referral processes and clinical thresholds set out or referred to in this Contract and/or as otherwise agreed between the Parties and/or as specified in any Prior Approval Scheme, (my highlight) and in any event where necessary for a Service User to exercise their legal right to choice as set out in Patient Choice Legislation and Guidance

The Parties here are the hospital trusts and the ICB. So, hospital trusts have the right, according to their contract, to reject referrals if they require exceptional funding. Simultaneously, GPs have the right to use a professional referral letter in line with their contract. So, once again, this falls within a commissioning deficit, whereby each provider has the right to adhere to its contract.

In practice, this is unlikely to be pursued by Avon LMC, due to the small numbers of patients involved, the wording of the NHS hospital contract, and the prioritisation of other activities for collective action.

Please see the message below from Mavin Kashyap, an academic GPST4 in the Bristol area:

General Practice seems relentless currently in terms of workload; however, a lot of this work goes unnoticed and is not measured by the NHS. A study has just launched which looks to address this – and it needs clinicians in general practice to take part. 

It is called the Hidden Workload Study and would only take 20 minutes of time to collect the data. Essentially, it is trying to measure the work that is routinely unaccounted for in General Practice. It does not require any specific consent requirements for patients as the research study is specifically targeted at clinicians’ workloads. 

Further information including a short video about the study can be found here:

The Hidden Workload Study (2024 – ongoing) — Primary care Academic CollaboraTive (PACT) (gppact.org)

Advantages of taking part:

– being part of research and being a co-author on the paper (no prior research experience required)
– the data collated for each practice is summarised and relayed back to each practice and benchmarked against the national average; allowing for useful insights into specific workload issues in the place you work so can help make change
– does not take a long time to do (and if you later don’t fancy it, you can withdraw any time)

IGPM are continuing to liaise with CQC regarding the ongoing issues practices are facing with inspections and assessments.

In that respect, we recently wrote to the CQC about one-word ratings, and the CQC have asked for a meeting to discuss this further.

Click here is the full letter.

Please contact Peter Maynard (peter.maynard1@nhs.net) or Robyn Clarke (robyn.clark3@nhs.net) if you need further information.

Are you making the most of your Buying Group membership?

When was the last time you reviewed how much your practice is spending on the products and services you regularly buy?

The cost of living crisis continues to bite and even GP practices will be looking for ways to reduce running costs.

This is where your free membership to the LMC Buying Group can really come in handy as it offers practices access to discounts on a wide range of products and services. They can help you save money on the following areas:

• Medical consumables and equipment
• Stationery, Office equipment and furniture
• Workwear
• Insurance
• Confidential information shredding
• Energy
• Recovery Oxygen
• Telecoms
• Test and Calibration
• Online Training
• DBS Checks Processing

The Buying Group suppliers won’t just offer you a great price one week and then ramp up the price the next so you can be assured that if you order from their suppliers, you’ll get a great price every time you shop meaning you don’t have to ‘shop around’ to find the best deal every month anymore.

If you’re not sure whether you’re a member and/or have access to the Buying Group website (this is where you can view the pricing/discounts and get quotes) then contact the Buying Group team on 0115 979 6910 or info@lmcbuyinggroups.co.uk. They can also help you with any questions you might have about your membership or the suppliers.

• 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 17 September General practice bulletin (mailchi.mp)
• Thursday 12 September General practice bulletin (mailchi.mp)

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– LATEST TRAINING AND EVENTS –

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We are holding an online event on the 5th November, hosted by South West NHS England Learning Disability and Autism Programme Team, to celebrate excellent work across the region and shine a light on end of life care.

The aim is to share innovative and creative ideas, engaging in meaningful discussion about death and dying with people who have a learning disability. This will include advanced planning and hearing the voices of those with profound learning disability.

This event will provide an interactive space and welcome anybody with a passion for improving End of Life care for people with a learning disability.

Bringing together an array of knowledge and skills we hope to use this opportunity to develop a piece of improvement work that will be taken forwards across the South West.

A full outline of the session and details of speakers to follow.

Click on this link to book your space: End of Life Webinar | NHS England Events

From Learning Disability and Autism Programme, South West Region NHS England

• 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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