Somerset LMC Weekly Update Friday 8th September 2017

Date sent: Friday 8 September 2017

All Somerset GPs and Practice Managers This and Previous updates can be found here

LMC Referral Leaflet
Results of GP Practice list closure survey
Influenza vaccine supply bulletin - September 2017
GP in Somerset is now on instagram as well as facebook @gpinsomerset or instagram.com/gpinsomerset
Top Tip...

LMC Referral Leaflet We are grateful for the positive comments from practices about the LMC leaflet “You have been referred to see a specialist” which some are already sending out with C&B material. The hope is that better informed patients will contact practices less about hospital-based questions. Colleagues have pointed out however that some changes might be useful to reflect some practices’ policies. We have therefore changed the word “phone” to “contact” in the section about medication regimen changes to take into account those who no longer have a prescription telephone line. We have also mentioned in the section about blood tests that normally these should be done at the hospital but, of course, many practices do offer (pro bono) the blood drawing service for patients for whom travelling to hospital would be inconvenient, for instance, before a follow-up appointment. The CCG IT team have offered to make this document into an EMIS template, which we hope to circulate soon

Results of GP Practice list closure survey The full results of the survey can be accessed via this link, there was a 38% turnout in the South West, 40.38% agreed to temporary suspension of registrations and 33.58% agreed to formal list closures. Extract from an e mail to LMCs from Dr Richard Vautrey GPC Chairman below:

Following discussion with the GPC England executive, policy leads and sessional GP executive members, we will not, at this stage, be making a decision about moving to a formal industrial action ballot of the profession, but using the results to support our negotiations and to call on the government to deal with the current crisis with far greater urgency.

There is much the government needs to do but key areas include:
a swift resolution to the indemnity crisis
a limit to workload levels so that no patient or doctor is put at risk
a sustainable expansion of the general practice and community workforce (with an end to short term schemes with non-recurrent funding)
surgery buildings that are fit for the 21st century

The LMC England Conference in November followed by the GPC England meeting the following week, provides us with a timeframe for negotiating with Government to seek the resolutions we need. Between now and then it is important that LMCs and GPC members engage with each other so that we can be fully informed of what is happening or changing around the country, and are all fully aware of the views of the GPs we represent prior to making decisions.

Regardless of the results of this survey, we know that many practices face real and unsustainable pressures today and need to act now to protect their current patients. In such situations practices have always been able to temporarily suspend patient registration of their own accord, as long as they have reasonable grounds that are not related to the characteristics of the patient.

Best wishes

Dr Richard Vautrey

Top Tip...

A practice has identified an issue where a positive herpes test isn’t always clear. See below. The top test is clear but the second test isn’t flagged as abnormal which isn’t really clear as doesn't’t say ‘POSITIVE’ and is in a different place. This has been flagged with the lab but practices may wish to check by doing a search on read code 43w51, in order to check the values and ensure patients have been treated accordingly