2016 LMC Conference - Dr Michelle Drage

Dr Michelle Drage shares her thoughts on the 2016 LMC Annual Conference, held on 20 May in London.

Along with the rest of England, London’s general practices are now in a state of emergency, and it is clear that patients risk losing their GPs unless pressures are dramatically eased. We are at breaking point. That’s not safe for patients or staff.

This was the essence of the debate at the National LMCs’ conference last week where, in a packed auditorium, in front of the great and the good of the BMA GPC, GP after GP took to the podium to plead for action and call for support for general practice before it is too late.

Dr Jackie Applebee, Chair of Tower Hamlets LMC, proposed Motion 20 (see below) and Londonwide LMCs representatives  speaking to it included Tower Hamlets colleague Dr Naomi Beer, Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer and myself. For your reference the NHS England Five Year Forward View published in October 2014 promised “stabilisation of GP funding” by October 2016. With real GMS MPIG reductions and PMS reviews the reality is this stabilisation is clearly not being implemented on the ground. While the GP Forward View offers promises of cash by 2020, it does not deliver the solutions we need in London right now. And so conference made its views crystal clear and passed Motion 20 overwhelmingly.

Watch Conference speeches on motion 20 here, my speech is 01:09:40 in.

Motion 20 – full wording

That conference does not accept the General Practice Forward View is an adequate response to the GPCs statement of need within the BMAs Urgent Prescription for General Practice, and considering this to be sufficient grounds for a trade dispute, unless the government agrees to accept the Urgent Prescription within 3 months of this conference, the GPC should ask the BMA to:

(i) ballot the profession on their willingness to sign undated resignations

(ii) ballot the profession on their willingness to take industrial action

(iii) ballot the profession as to what forms of industrial action they are prepared to take

(iv) produce a report to practices on the options for taking industrial action that doesn’t breach their contracts

Last updated : 26 May 2016

 

Clinical information dashboard delayed (22 May 2019)

The new Primary Care Indicators Dashboard was due to be launched on 1 May 2019. However, NHS England have encountered a number of problems relating to formatting and resolving...
Read more »

Premises update - May 2019 (22 May 2019)

Rent review process  The rent review process applies to all practices who rent their premises, regardless of who their landlord is.  Practices have been reporting delays following applications for a...
Read more »

Tips of the month May 2019 (22 May 2019)

We provide weekly tips based on common queries which come through to us from London GPs and practice teams. These are shared via social media and collated for...
Read more »

Improving numeracy and data skills in general practice (22 May 2019)

We all use maths every day, whether we consciously think about it or not. Staff working in healthcare are no different. Last week included National Numeracy Day, the annual celebration...
Read more »

International Nurses Day 2019 (22 May 2019)

We celebrated International Nurses Day on 12 May by highlighting the contribution of nurses on social media.   Did you know that only 11.4%...
Read more »

Primary care networks update - May 2019 (22 May 2019)

The process for setting up primary care networks (PCNs) has now moved on to the approval stage, following last week’s deadline for submitting applications. CCGs have until the end of...
Read more »

Making social prescribing work in practice (22 May 2019)

Dr Jane Myat, of the Caversham Group Practice in Camden, explains how her practice has used social prescribing to improve the wellbeing of patients and staff. From July, approved Primary...
Read more »
Next Page »
« Previous Page