GPC Report 21 July 2016

GPC Report

For East and West Sussex LMCs

Dr Russell Brown

21 July 2016

The GPC met on 21 July 2016.  Apologies for the delay in getting this out to you, I have been eating and drinking too much with friends in France.  There will be no such excuses for the next report. 

Chaand Nagpaul was re-elected, unopposed, as the Chair of GPC UK and the new post of GPC England.  there have been changes which I have described in previous reports.  For a reminder, check the BMA GPC pages which can be found here.

News about a list cleansing project (again) appeared in the medical press just before the meeting.  the process was apparently to be led by Capita, which I am sure will fill colleagues with a sense of confidence, although confidence may not be the appropriate word.  However there had been no discussion about the process with us and NHS England have apologised.  Any process will need to be discussed with us and we will not accept any proposals which will damage General Practice.

Subsequent to the report about this issue, a motion was passed by GPC, a relatively unusual event.  The motion was as follows, and passed unanimously:

That GPC UK notes how the NHS England commissioned service for Primary Care support in England with Capita has seriously compromised patient safety and caused significant disruption to GP surgeries already under unprecedented workload pressures, and therefore has no confidence with these arrangements.

Furthermore GPC UK insists that the plans for removing patients from practice lists, which may be illegal and discriminatory, should be abandoned and NHS England must commit to discussions with GPC England before any further list management plans are put in place. 

Furthermore, on the day of GPC a significant event came to light regarding the so-called transformation of primary care support services.  Colleagues may have seen an article in Pulse about this issue.  In essence, in some areas where SBS had been providing support (I use the term loosely) it was discovered that a backlog of clinical correspondence and results stretching back over several years remained in storage areas and had not been processed.  The correspondence includes temporary resident forms, duplicate documents or some results and communications about treatment steps.  NHS England have undertaken a clinical review to assess any high risk correspondence.  GPC is discussing a remuneration and support package for practices which are impacted by this event.

The Carr-Hill formula review, due to be implemented in April 2017 has, utterly unsurprisingly, been delayed until 2018.  I will believe it when I see it.

There was further discussion about how to respond to the decisions reached at LMC Conference recently.  These discussions are currently confidential but as ever I will supply more information when I can.

The issue of an indemnity support scheme was discussed.  Conversations with NHS England continue but the current iteration can be found here.  It is a start but not ideal.

The official GPC news can be found at the usual bit of the BMA website.

The next GPC meeting is in September, and every two months thereafter.  So a silver-lining, you will be getting fewer of these from me!

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

Dr Russell Brown