GPCE Report
For East and West Sussex LMCs
Dr Russell Brown
20 May 2021
GPC England met remotely this week. This was the first meeting after the recent LMC UK conference.
There were verbal reports from the Exec/Policy Leads, Sessionals and Trainees committees and a written report will be sent out to LMCs shortly after the meeting. There was also a verbal report from Dr Rachel Ali, the GPC’s gender champion. She is assisting SSLMCs in our own development of a similar role for our federation of LMCs.
The main item for discussion was the emergency motion regarding the NHSE letter of last week about face to face appointments, seconded by our own Julius Parker which you may have seen reported in Pulse before the meeting, below:
GPC England is outraged by NHS England and NHS Improvement’s lack of understanding of the pressures facing General Practice and:
- Calls for formal BMA action by escalating concerns about NHS England’s apparent lack of knowledge of the applicable contracts and regulations relating to the delivery of General Practice services
- Seeks both senior explanation and public action from the Department of Health and Social Care in view of the unacceptable decision to publish letter BO497 on 13 May 2021
- Has no confidence in the Executive Directors of NHS England
- Calls upon the Chair of BMA U.K. Council to support the Chair of GPC England in demanding an urgent meeting with the Secretary of State for Health & Social Care, to discuss the spiralling crisis in General Practice
v) Calls for GPC England’s Executive to immediately cease all formal meetings with NHS England until a motion is brought back to GPC England by the Executive, requesting a vote on their recommendation that sufficient steps have been taken to restore the Committee’s confidence in the Executive Directors of NHS England, to justify the resumption of such meetings.
This is an issue I would describe as probably the most important vote I have contributed to in the time of my GPC service. The anger in general practice from clinicians and non-clinicians alike has been palpable. I am delighted to be able to report that the motion was passed in all its parts, with at least an overwhelming majority. (There were two abstentions for iii and two votes against for v, with 55 GPC members being able to vote on this occasion, the stem and other parts were passed unanimously. It should be noted that voting is anonymous.)
Workload pressures were discussed after the themed debate at the recent LMC conference. Next steps are being formulated but the new contractual obligation on CCGs and trusts in the NHS Standard contract to develop a meaningful primary-secondary care interface system is promising.
The issue of whether Sessional GPs should be represented as a separate branch of practice to the rest of GPs was discussed. It should be noted that sessional GPs now form the biggest group of GPs, with contractors being the minority.
A Contract negotiations update was given. Obviously, future discussions may be delayed after the passing of the motion in the morning session. Ongoing support for COVID-related matters, an inadequately resourced obesity and overweight enhanced service and updates on the position on new PNC service specs and IIF indicators and an Access offer (the combination of extended hours and access) were discussed. More details as things get fleshed out.
Issues for Dispensing practices were also discussed. This includes a relatively small number of practices in Sussex than in other areas but dispensing services are vital to some communities and practices, especially those with a high rurality. Meetings are being sought at a ministerial level to try and resolve some of the issues, which include reimbursement/EPS, the now defunct Falsified Medicines Directive, deductions after scripts were not signed by dispensers (especially at the start of the pandemic lockdown periods) and the Green agenda (in that the drug tariff will now be available online and not printed each month).
GPC has once again written to NHSE about the parlous Gender Identity Development Services commissioning arrangements or, more accurately, their lack.
Finally, the recently motions passed at LMC Conference were discussed briefly in terms of how they will fit in to policy group work streams.
After GPC, I attended a meeting of the Representation Policy Group, where we discussed the sessionals branch of practice issue mentioned above, a survey of LMCs, an update on the GPC UK review, multi member constituencies and standardising standing orders across the GPC committees.
I hope you have found this report helpful. Please feedback so that I can ensure my reports are useful.
Dr Russell Brown
