Building Resilience - Taking Control - book your FREE place at our Annual Conference

This year's annual conference on Thursday 5 February 2015 is designed to help you and your practice overcome the barriers between yourself, your patients, and the care you want to give. It's about building resilience so you can push aside the bureaucracy and concentrate on what you do best - looking after your patients.

We have got some amazing and inspirational speakers; you can join in a debate and we have workshops to participate in, it's a highly interactive occasion.

Keep up to date with our campaign

As we run up to the General Election, our GP Resilience campaign still needs you and your practice teams to play your part to the fullest right now.

Flu vaccination provision - congratulations from NHS England and Public Health England

Thara Raj, Locum Principal Adviser and Public Health Consultant (Early Years and Immunisations) at NHS England (London) has recently sent emails regarding Flu vaccination provision and Seasonal Flu.

Michelle Drage stands up for general practice in the Huffington Post

Londonwide LMCs' Chief Executive Dr Michelle Drage was recently invited to write for the Huffington Post.

In the article Michelle reiterates that fact that 90% of all NHS activity takes place in General Practice with less than 10% of the overall funding. She also highlights the "absolute pressure cooker effect has been building every day in GPs' surgeries".

NHS Patient Online Programme - update

As we start 2015, the Patient Online programme wants to ensure that CCGs, CSUs and general practices are familiar with the support available to help deliver the contractual requirements of online appointments, repeat prescriptions and online record access. Patient Online has had a significant increase in uptake, as of December 2014, 47% of London's GP practices activated online medical records access. There has also been a rise in practices offering online appointment and online repeat prescription ordering to 91% and 88% respectively.

Friends and Family Test deadline

Please remember that the data you are collecting from the Friends and Family Test patient survey during January is due to be submitted on 17 February 2015.

Guidance for submission is here and as long as you can submit a minimum of five responses at this stage you will have fulfilled your requirements.

Workforce Minimum Data Set - GPC position - January 2015

Previous advice from the GPC regarding the Workforce Minimum Data Set - GPC position, may be subject to change, following expressions of concern from practices and others. GPC now suggests that practices may wish to delay responding until clarification from DH, ICO and HISCIC is obtained. Further advice from GPC is expected soon.

Sharp Instruments Regulations - survey request to GPs under the Freedom of Information Act from UCL and Public Health England

A number of London practices have been sent a request for information regarding compliance with the requirements of the Sharps Instruments in Healthcare Regulations 2013. This request has been made under the Freedom of Information Act, which practices are subject to. A response must, therefore, be made within 20 days of receipt. Please refer to Londonwide LMC's advice to practices on this matter.

North West London A & E Departments - inquiry launched

Four London Councils (Hammersmith & Fulham, Brent, Hounslow, and Ealing) have appointed Michael Mansfield QC to lead a probe into poor A & E services since the closures of the departments at the Central Middlesex and Hammersmith hospitals.

Retired Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) indicators

Following concerns highlighted by practices and LMCs relating to the request from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) to extract data related to retired QOF indicators (see GPC statement), the GPC has taken up the profession's legitimate concerns with NHS England and NHS Employers. NHS England have apologised for the error which resulted in the HSCIC statement that "it is a requirement for general practices to ensure they continue to provide the services linked to these indicators".

London Maternity Strategic Clinical Network - sharing best practice

Caroline Moren of NHS England has shared with us information from their Strategic Clinical Network with regard to best practice in maternity care.

Apprenticeships in general practice

LEL is working with London Health Education Boards and other training providers to get apprentices into general practice. We have consulted with practice managers about their needs to ensure apprentices and practices are fully supported throughout the entire process.

Seasonal Flu Vaccines 2015/16 - offers from the LMC Buying Group

The LMC Buying Groups Federation has concluded negotiations with flu vaccine companies for the 2015/16 season and can now announce that the first preferred supplier for 2015/16 is once again Pfizer. The joint second preferred suppliers are Abbott and MASTA and the third preferred supplier is GSK.

LEL Blended Learning Programmes - update

Following on from the success last year of Health Education NCEL funded training for 30 health care assistants (HCAs) and their corresponding nurse mentors, we are delighted to inform you that we have been granted further resources for another 30 places for NCEL practices.

LEL consultancy - update

The launch of our consultancy programme with a number of Affiliated Associates is going really well! We are particularly pleased to have launched our Network Locum splash page. Network Locum provide an easy online solution for practices to find locums and for locums to find practices. Network Locum do all the due diligence on locums so practices can be assured of good governance.

Latest sessional GP BMA e-newsletter

The latest BMA e-newsletter for sessional GPs focusses on supporting how co-commissioning could affect you, how you could be a real asset to your LMCs as well as seeking your views on the future. The e-newsletter can also be downloaded from the BMA website.