Avon LMCs Newsletter on 26-03-25

---

The ALMC Newsletter

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

---

– LATEST NEWS –

---

It’s been another busy week with some of your LMC representatives attending the Special Conference of England LMCs on 19/03/25. They were:

• Simon Bodey: representing South Gloucestershire
• Tanya Beer and Mike Jenkins: representing North Somerset
• Lee Salkeld and Shaba Nabi: representing Bristol
• Robyn Clark: representing Practice Managers
• Rebecca Kemp: Avon LMC Manager

As you may recall, there was a call for a special conference to determine what “escalatory steps GP practices in England must take to ensure the survival of the profession.” The special conference was “in camera” which means that no media or external observers were permitted to attend, and the outputs remain confidential until the official publication from the BMA and Conference team.

What I can share is that the Chair of GPC England presented the letter received from the Health Secretary a day earlier, committing to negotiating a substantive new GP contract in the term of this Labour government. This is a step in right direction as we all know that this year’s contract allows practices to stand still, but we need something radical to fund and retain GPs of all contractual status, to enable our profession to thrive.

Finally, I would like to thank you all for engaging with the LMC Phase 3 Survey for Action – Collective, Corrective, Collaborative – whatever you wish to call it. We have hit a whopping 97% response rate which is a phenomenal achievement. It’s only when people have a say in what happens, that they are willing to act.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Shaba Nabi
Chair Avon LMC

Although we have received full engagement with our Phase 3 survey, we want you to shape the next steps. The Members’ event last September was pivotal in setting strategic direction for collective action, so we are aware how important it is for us to come together and collaboratively plan next steps.

This time it’s a lot easier because it’s virtual and we would like a minimum of two representatives from each practice (maximum four) to discuss next steps for collaborative commissioning.

Please register your attendance here.

The LMC is aware of many practices getting pushback on prescribing from PCLS as they state they are an Advice and Guidance service.

The LMC believes in the general principle that any provider who consults with a patient (face to face or remotely) is responsible for completing that episode of care. However, it has become apparent that this prescribing activity falls into yet another commissioning gap, because neither PCLS not general practice are commissioned to provide this.

We continue to attend regular system meetings to address all prescribing initiation issues. In the meantime, we ask that you continue to pushback on workload transfer associated with prescribing.

Question: Could we get some clarification on medical information for bus pass forms? We are receiving an influx of forms with councils not accepting medical summaries and their forms are time consuming. What is our position here?

Answer: As these forms are not a statutory requirement for practices, GPs can offer the information in any format they choose to. This could be either through completing the form, or supplying a letter, or sharing a printed summary with the patient. It is also non-NHS work.

The letter from the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to the Chair of GPC England can be found here.

The BMA has published guidance on this here:
24-25 Updated CAIP Guidance

Avon LMC would like to remind you that signing this now for the 24/25 financial year, does not bind practices or PCN CDs to any particular action for the 25/26 financial year.

We therefore believe that sign-up could be achieved before end March, and payment should be earned (and any NHSE audits passed) as long as the online consultations tools remain “on” for all of core hours, for the rest of March 2025.

Of course, PCNs could just choose to forgo payment for this aspect of CAIP as it is not a core contractual requirement for the GMS/PMS or PCN DES contract.

The March action tracker survey will be the final one in its present format. Future iterations will incorporate significant modifications. The survey is open and will close at 5pm on Monday 31st March

• 2nd Apr 2025: Membership Meeting, 19.00 – 21.00
• 6th May 2025: Virtual LMC drop in, 13.00 – 14.00
• 1st July 2025: Virtual LMC drop in, 13.00 – 14.00

• Tuesday 25 March General practice bulletin
• Thursday 20 March General practice bulletin

---

– LATEST TRAINING AND EVENTS –

---

If you work in a non-clinical/support role in General Practice, we would like to invite you to attend a virtual staff engagement workshop, to help shape the work of the General Practice Non-Clinical Development Project.
 
Workshops will run on 3 separate dates and will be an opportunity for you to share your thoughts and insights, and provide feedback and suggestions on areas such as:

• Training and development provision and access
• Future training and development needs
• Development pathways

 
Please see the attached flyer for more details, including how to book. For further information, please contact Louise Carthy, Project Lead, at L.Carthy@nhs.net. 

• BCYP EduForum: Milk related problems in children
  22^nd April from 13.00-13.30
  Signup here

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

---

---