Avon LMCs Newsletter on 31-07-24

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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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This week, we wanted to write to let you know about work we are doing around how we communicate with you. Hopefully most of you will have noticed that we have developed our newsletter in the last few months, and had some good feedback from members that they have found it more informative and relevant. It’s also handy having a former Pulse columnist on hand for hints on content!

The events of the last few weeks – the weekend flurry spent discussing the switch-off of GP connect functionality in EMIS Web, and the recent global IT outage – has highlighted the importance of an Avon LMC Whatsapp channel to communicate messages to all our member easily, and in case of urgency. This has been used quite effectively by other organisations. We have now set this up, and you can sign up to our broadcasts by filling the form here. We would like to be sure that as many members as possible have access to this, so do sign up and spread the word.

Dr Michael Jenkins,
Board Director Avon LMC

Please see the letter from Paul Arnold, Deputy Chief Executive & Chief Operating Officer.

Please see below information regarding DDRB award announcement.

The Government has announced its response to the DDRB recommendations for doctors’ pay in England. A 6% uplift has been announced for GP contractors, salaried GPs and all employed practice staff. This is inclusive of the previous 1.9% awarded via the contract imposition earlier this year, ie the award supplements an additional 4.1% on top of the existing 1.9%.

Back in May, the previous government alluded to its commitment to accept the DDRB recommendation, which GPC England advised would be ‘a disaster for the profession’. The profession is aware this is not enough to address the erosion of funding for general practice as shown through the campaign. Referring to the swingometer from our May newsletter, it was highlighted that an uplift of 10.7% was required to restore real-terms funding to 2018/19 levels.

While the news that the chancellor has agreed to the DDRB recommendation in full is to be welcomed, the announcement will not pause the closures of GP surgeries, reduce the inexorable workload transfer onto general practice from all parts of the wider system, and will not get thousands of under-employed GPs into practice roles.

We appreciate that the new government is inheriting a broken NHS, as the new health secretary has said himself, and especially general practice. We also heard today from the chancellor how the public finances are in disarray. We have been heartened by the new secretary of state’s words in each meeting we have had with him but our profession needs more than words.

Later this week, we anticipate the result of our non-statutory ballot from Civica following our campaign through the ballot for GPs to take action: Protect your Practice, Protect your patients. The voting window closed at 12pm today, and we are so grateful to the thousands of GPs and practice teams who logged onto the webinars, travelled to the roadshows, downloaded resources and who have ordered support materials. You can continue to access practice resources and download our patient-facing materials, including videos, slides and posters for your webpages, social media channels and practices.

Whatever the result later this week, it is clear that as a GP profession we have never been more united, by our desire to protect our patients, our practices and our futures. As we begin to see other branches of practice start their journeys towards pay restoration, we now need to prepare to embark on our own.

Remember, the ballot for GP partners may be closed but the offer for three months’ free BMA membership is still open until 17 August. This year we have seen over 4,500 GPs join the BMA. Thank you for your support – please spread the word as we will be stronger together in the difficult times ahead, but we have got your back.

Watch a video for more information on our campaign and ballot >

Please see below letter from Krishan Aggarwal Co-deputy chair, BMA Pensions Committee

One of the biggest challenges that GPs in England face is out of date and inaccurate pension records. The scale of this problem is likely to mean that a significant proportion, running into the many thousands, are affected. This is through no fault of your own and is a direct result of the failures of those that manage your pension record.

This matters because without your record being up to date, you cannot make informed decisions about your pension, and this is more important than ever with the upcoming McCloud remedy decision making.

The BMA has repeatedly highlighted serious concerns with the number of members who have missing years of pensions data. We have  also repeatedly fed back to NHS Pensions that their new ‘My Pensions Portal’ is not fit for purpose in providing sufficient information to members.

Unfortunately, there has not been sufficient progress to resolve the missing years issue, and so we are now encouraging members to personally take action to get your pension records in order.

To support you we have created detailed guidance on our website, which includes template letters to help you get your records up to date. The first step is requesting information from NHS Pensions. We have added the template for this initial letter to an online tool that enables us to see how many times the letter has been sent and hence how many members are contacting NHS Pensions. This information will help us pressure NHS England and Capita to resolve these problems.

Once you have received this information from NHS pensions, you will be able to identify any missing years of data and raise a complaint with Capita. If Capita fail to resolve your case within 40 calendar days, we have outlined a clear escalation process with further template letters to help you along the way.

We encourage you to urgently take action to get your pension records up to date.

Question:Do I need to pay for a 90-day notice period to cancel the DPO service with my current provider?

Answer: Avon LMC has sought legal advice in relation to this matter. Rolling DPO contracts were issued by Avon Local Medical Committee and if your practice holds that contract, and has not signed a subsequent contract with another provider, then the 90-day notice period would not apply.

Should you have any concerns or queries please email info@almc.co.uk.

Please see July BNSSG Training Hub Headlines Newsletter here. 

The Bristol Respiratory Interest Group (BRIG) for nurses is relaunching in September for more information please click here

• Thursday 30 July General practice bulletin (mailchi.mp) 
• Tuesday 25 July General practice bulletin (mailchi.mp)

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– LATEST TRAINING AND EVENTS –

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• 14 August Pelvic Health – Why it matters?  https://forms.office.com/e/QLtGHqWns8
• 15 August Getting the Best out of your Laboratory Tests: Blood and Infection Science Session https://forms.office.com/e/jgv3KziFCi
• 20 August CYP EduForum: Allergy https://forms.office.com/e/w8XvU4iW03

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

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