GPC report 16 July

GPC Report

For East and West Sussex LMCs

Dr Russell Brown

16th July 2015

The GPC held its latest meeting on16th of July.  I delayed sending this report so that I can include a “Focus on…” document regarding SAR requests from insurance companies, which have been driving my secretary mad. In essence the ICO wrote to the insurance industry and told them that utilising a Subject Access Request for the purposes of the insurance business was an inappropriate use of the Data Protection Act. This should save quite a lot of administrative time as we won’t have to copy so many sets of notes. Please note this does not apply to most of the requests we receive from solicitors, but only most of them.  (For blog readers, the document is at Focus on Subject Access Requests for insurance ... - BMA)

The meeting began with a two-hour session on the role and structure of the general practitioners defence fund. I would like to report that this session was engaging and useful. Unfortunately the way matters were presented seemed to suggest that the changes being suggested had already been decided upon. In the end however it became clear that further work is needed before any decisions are taken.

The executive team report confirmed that as usual,  the NHS employers are still waiting for a mandate for negotiation.  While we are waiting for this to happen we need to consider carefully and imaginatively anything which can keep us afloat. Our negotiating team have already asked for stability, reduced administration and more resources.

• GPC is looking to set up some kind of emergency practice support fund to try and proactively avoid a crisis in a locality which may then result in a domino effect.
• the formula review group looking at the Carr-hill formula includes representatives from GPC  but is in the very early stages of work. There is also a parallel work stream going on to look at atypical practices.  This may be ready for 2017-18, but will be subject to review and agreement. Practices should not depend on the review from making any long-term decisions on funding.
• Workload and  efficiencies: monitoring and quantifying GP workload is needed to help in negotiations and for our DDRB 
• Gp networks: work continues to facilitate the development of GP networks including the development of the database of organisations
• in November there may be regional meetings as pilots of GPC and LMC’s meeting together. It will be interesting to see how this works
• premises:  GPC is in the middle of negotiations about the Reformation of regulations. The standard lease is still a work in progress but should be ready soon. In the meantime practices should not sign any lease without checking with the LMC and their own independent legal advisers.

There was a session on new models of care with presentations by Nigel Watson of Wessex and Sam Etherington of Tower Hamlets. Both areas are Vanguard sites with very different structures to each other. However there are some common themes and it will be interesting to see how these things develop, especially given that the funding is only for one year.

CQC have updated their “Myth-busters” and I would advise constituents to make them selves aware of them.  They have also produced a couple of videos about “What to expect when we inspect” which you may find helpful.

The next GPC meeting is scheduled for September.

I hope you have found this report helpful.  Please feedback so that I can ensure my reports are useful.  

Dr Russell Brown