Mword - Issue 34

21 December 2017

Thank you for what you do and still managing to do it

I want to say a personal thank you to all who have struggled so hard to uphold the values of general practice in what I can only describe as a year of unbelievable turmoil in our day-to-day GP and practice team members’ working lives. Without your tenacity and dedication to your patients, there can be no real NHS general practice.

In our city of nigh on 10 million, there are people young and old whose lives do not fit neatly into a selected number of clinical pathways, people who depend on your tenacity to enable them to receive the care they need from community, social, mental health and hospitals (yes, they still are a thing). In a politico-financial environment which seems hell bent on (sorry - getting best value by) prioritising want over need from a fixed funding pot under the cloak of choice (apologies again, I may have led you to think I meant votes).

When actually all we want and need is to be able to do our job properly and to get that sense of professional and personal achievement from doing it well (yes, we have feelings too). And lo, we call it Joy.

We’ve still got your backs
Through the year the team at Londonwide LMCs and each of our constituent LMCs have been working to give you some breathing space to do the day job, including:

Supporting practices and GPs with the CQC, NHS England and GMC.
Tackling Capita/PCSE, Community Health Partnerships and NHS Property Services over various demands, refusals and denials.
Reaching out to sessionals, salaried and locums.
Putting significant effort into preventing funding being pulled out of local GMS and PMS practices under the guise of the PMS review.
Supporting practices with contract issues, mergers and funding bids. Going through the fine print of LISes, DESes and numerous other types of contracts.
Representing London general practice to the NHS, politicians and the media.
Pushing to keep a level playing field as new technology changes how we work.
Continuing our GP State of Emergency campaign, providing resources and support.

Behold the future
Which is quite a timely sentiment as everyone (else) hits the final approach to Christmas. And so, it is in that spirit that I give you the latest announcement from NHS DIGITal’s ghost of Christmas Yet To Come:

NHS DIGITal (think about it)

The NHS GP On Foot is a new service where, simply by triggering a spring-like action on your shoe, you can instantly access a GP whenever you want, on your very own foot. Gone are the days of having to waste time downloading apps. With this new NHS service you simply click your heels and up from your own shoe pops a real life NHS GP. YES IT'S TRUE, your very own GP could appear from under your own foot. And this fully evidence-based service provides many extra health benefits - no more worrying while you’re busy out on a run, having to think ”What if I become ill one day, will I be able to get an appointment?”. Our new service transforms all that. Now you can actually see a GP on your own foot WHILE you run, worry-free.

Nobody says Michelle doesn’t embrace technology.

But trench humour aside, we take concerns about your practices’ stability extremely seriously. If you are concerned that your practice list is being destabilised then please do contact us via: gpsupport@lmc.org.uk.

And on behalf of the team and family at Londonwide LMCs I’d like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.