GPC
UK and GPC England report
For
East and West Sussex LMCs
Dr
Russell Brown
18
March 2021
GPC
met in 2 parts today. The morning session was GPC UK meeting in the afternoon
session GPC England meeting. Technically, this was the last GPC UK meeting for
this session of the BMA year. This would normally be until July but as the BMA ARM
has been postponed until September, the session finishes then. However there
will be no further GPC UK meetings between now and then. There are 2 more GPC
England meetings in the current session.
At
the time I write this report, we are in the closing hours of the election for
the next 3 years of your GPC rep. I stood again and I was delighted that Dr
Andrew Sikorski also stood. This is the first time I’ve had a contested
election in a little over a decade so regardless of the result I would like to
thank Dr Sikorski for sticking his head above the parapet alongside me.
GPC
UK
There
has been much work going on in the background between the GPC Executive and the
policy leads. A lot of this is summarised in the latest GPC newsletter which is
available on the BMA website at https://www.bma.org.uk/what-we-do/committees/general-practitioners-committee/general-practitioners-committee-uk-overview
There
was a lengthy and complex item on the changes in the NHS pension scheme after
the recent age discrimination decision by the courts against the government.
Neither the LMC nor I are regulated financial advisors so any advice we give
will be limited to speak to regulated independent financial advisor about your
pension! However it would be fair to say that there is ongoing work both in
terms of providing guidance to GPs and their accountants or financial advisors
and in conversations with government about fairness and Equity with other
members of the NHS pension scheme. There are likely to be several levels of
support from the BMA, both for non-members and members though as you might
expect members are likely to get an enhanced package of support. Given the
complexity of GP pensions it may well be that there will be a need for extra
expense for advice and at the moment I am not clear whether this will be
something that the government pays for, the BMA pays for all that GPs will have
to fund themselves. No doubt we will have more pensions information from the BMA
in due course, some of it possibly even comprehensible.
A
working group is being set up involving people within and without GPC to look
at the future structure and function of the committee. This will involve a
variety of people including some grass roots LMC members.
GPC
England
The
current GPC executive team were reappointed recently. This was advertised in
several communications over recent months.
There
has been significant ongoing meetings with NHSEI to discuss Covid related
matters including the vaccination campaign, which has been remarkably
successful. I think all of our colleagues involved in the provision of that
service should be congratulated. Personally, I remain concerned about the
sustainability of the scheme especially given that we are having to move back
to something more resembling business as usual (though NHSEI are clear that “BAU”
does not mean pre-pandemic BAU) in the next few weeks. For example there will
be no protection for QOF this year. Remote reviews however will be an
acceptable way to deliver this for most patients.
However
the GMS contract deal has included minimal changes from April and there will be
no further IIF indicators or additional PCN services introduced before October
2021.
Vaccination
phase 2 planning is proceeding and by the time you read this PCNs will have had
to decide whether to move ahead and vaccinate people in cohorts 10-12, the
18-49-year-olds. Colleagues choosing to do so will need to provide assurances
to the CCG is that they can continue to deliver clinical services to patients
including QOF.
There
have been discussions about VAT on “services” and staff involved in PCN work.
The executive team have written to ministers to see what mitigation on VAT
obligations can be put in place, if any. There is still much uncertainty about
a variety of issues around ARRS staff and the training needs for example and
dialogue continues between the executive team and NHSEI.
Colleagues
would have seen Julius’s recent communication about appraisals locally.
National discussions about this continue.
CQC
are considering restarting inspection of practices but have revised the
position several times already. They appear to be concentrating currently
practices who were previously graded as “inadequate” or “requires improvement”.
There
was an update and discussion about the ICS white paper. It would be safe to say
there is still a significant amount of uncertainty and BMA and GPC both
continuing to work on making sure that GP representation is adequate and based
around our statutory representative bodies, namely the local medical committee.
There
was also discussion around shared parental leave which received broad support
although there are some issues in the SFE. My feeling is that these should be
addressed so that shared parental leave becomes the norm rather than a benefit.
The
GP gender pay gap persists for several reasons. For salaried GPs the gap is
22.3% but even partners have a 7.7% gap. The committee discussed ways in which
to develop a negotiating position to attempt to move things forward. Again,
although the concept is simple working our way through it appears to be very
complex. Again, a personal view is that I find it in comprehensible that
anybody would treat colleagues differently based simply on their gender.
I
hope you have found this report helpful. Please feedback so that I can ensure
my reports are useful.
Dr Russell Brown
