Mword Issue 88 - Dr Michelle Drage's latest update for GPs and practice teams

15 October 2021

• Disregard for the necessity of remote triage for clinical safety
• Disregard for the efficiency of remote consultations to attend to more people and keep waiting times down.
• Assumptions that 20% of all practices are “under-performing”.
• Weighting patient satisfaction feedback above and beyond clinical judgments regarding safe and appropriate care.
• Calls to return to pre-pandemic F2F levels, whilst maintaining increased levels of patient appointments, in the face of data showing a depleted workforce.
• Continued insistence that CAS 111 triage, which results in 60% primary care deployment, continues and increases.
• Repeated unevidenced messaging that increased A&E activity is the result of access failures within general practice.
• Enforcement of non-contractual changes, and the over-riding of the independent practitioner model, by CQC regulation.
• Increased reporting requirements across the board, and in order to access limited additional resource (re-announced as part of the “new” package).
• A blatant land-grab to remove the historic independence and autonomy of GPs to determine the appropriate management of our patients’ care has already begun to widen the chasm between GPs on the ground and leaders at NHSEI and elsewhere.

• Has been imposed, not agreed with GPC and the BMA. GPC representatives are seeking an emergency GPC England meeting to develop a plan of action that can be shared with practices.
• Has unrealistic timelines and unevidenced targets that do not tell us anything about the quality of care being offered by practice.
• Conflates wants with clinical need, making it harder for our exhausted teams to manage workload safely.
• Claims to offer money to allow us to increase our workforce, when we know that workforce doesn’t exist.
• Is a diversion from the sustained lack of support for general practice.
• Is gaslighting.

Keep well. Stay safe.

With best wishes

Dr Michelle Drage MBBS FRCGP
CEO, Londonwide LMCs

This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please accept our apologies and notify the sender. The registered and office address for Londonwide Local Medical Committees Limited is: Tavistock House South, Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9LG. Registered in England No: 6391298. Londonwide Enterprise Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Londonwide Local Medical Committees Limited. Londonwide Enterprise Limited is registered at: Tavistock House South, Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9LG. Registered in England No. 6990874. Londonwide Enterprise Limited is registered as a Company Limited by Shares. VAT no: 130 1454 66. Londonwide Local Medical Committees Limited and Londonwide Enterprise Limited do not provide legal or financial advice and thereby excludes all liability howsoever arising in circumstances where any individual, person or entity has suffered any loss or damage arising from the use of information provided by Londonwide Local Medical Committees Limited and Londonwide Enterprise Limited in circumstances where professional legal or financial advice ought reasonably to have been obtained. Londonwide Local Medical Committees Limited and Londonwide Enterprise Limited provide guidance and support to GPs and practice teams in the Londonwide area. Additionally Londonwide Local Medical Committees Limited provides representation to GPs and practice teams in the Londonwide area. Londonwide Local Medical Committees Limited and Londonwide Enterprise Limited strongly advises individuals or practices to obtain independent legal or financial advice.