GPC UK report 1 October 2020

 GPC UK Report

For East and West Sussex LMCs

Dr Russell Brown

1 October 2020

The GPC met remotely this week.  I managed to actually attend this one, the previous two meetings being held while I was on leave.  I don’t think this was deliberate on the part of the GPC Executive team and would like to thank Julius for sharing his last two reports with Sussex GPs.

Much of the discussions were confidential unfortunately, so I can’t share many details. However the latest GPC newsletter is available from the GPC pages of the BMA website. There is usually an update every week or two.  Julius’s updates from the LMC office are also an excellent source of information and I would recommend you read them.

Colleagues will have seen the BMA/GPC proposal on urgent measures needed to support general practice but if you haven’t it is available at https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/covid-19/gp-practices/covid-19-general-practice-during-the-second-wave. You may be aware of the BMA GP COVID resource centre and toolkit but if not, it’s worth a look. 

At the time of writing, no apology has been received from Sir Simon Stevens about the outrageous letter sent by NHSEI on the 14^th September, telling us to go back to routine face to face work if patients wanted it, in direct contrast to the SOP published by (wait for it) NHSEI.  Apparently one is coming. Not altogether sure why it hasn’t been sent already to be honest.  

Much of the morning was taken up with reports from the five “national” GPCs in the UK, essentially on how the other four areas’ governments have supported GP much better than NHSEI. Plus ça change...

The afternoon saw a seminar on unconscious bias followed by policy group meetings.  I am on the Representation policy group.  We discussed: possible changes to changes to constituencies for GPC elections (moving to multi-member constituencies); the continued work of the Gender Balance task and finish group and the election of a Gender Diversity Champion; and a proposed altered branch of practice definition for GPC (so a committee member definition, or who would be eligible to stand for election to GPC).

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

Dr Russell Brown