WORCESTERSHIRE LMC LTD
NEWSLETTER
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MENTAL HEALTH TRUST
As part of the Mental Health Trust Foundation status bid they have now attended the LMC twice. This is the first time anybody from the Mental Health Service has ever attended an LMC meeting and was very much welcomed by members of the committee. A significant number of issues were covered over a discussion which lasted an hour and members were very pleased at the positive response from the contingent from the Mental Health Trust. Dr Ros Keeton, the Chief Executive, Ms Jan Ditheridge, Chief Operating Officer, Ms Kate Glenholmes, Business Lead came accompanied by Dr W Creaney and Dr Farmer. A wide range of issues included improving access to psychotherapy which is being worked on and acute adult care pathways. A new liaison service is starting to work in A&E and it was discussed how this would relate to primary care. A particular issue relates to accessing urgent care during the day and the Trust is planning to have a single phone number for point of access for the whole of Worcestershire to be piloted from the 1st January which we hope will make life much easier for GPs and get speedier responses from their patients. A lot of the discussion centred on the issue of communication and this was hopefully taken on board by the Trust representatives. A user’s manual is being produced along with tighter quality specifications for them to use, particularly around clinical and discharge letters.
We hope that this will be the start of much better communication between primary and secondary care which will be to the greater advantage of all of us and not the least our patients. Trust representatives will be attending an LMC meeting again next year to review progress on these issues.
MTRAC VACANCY
In the latest GPC West Midlands newsletter it was mentioned that there was a vacancy on MTRAC, and nominations were asked for. Since this time, a second vacancy has occurred due to retirement. Meetings are held on the fourth Thursday of every month (except August and December). They begin at 12.30pm with a working lunch and finish by 3.30pm. Locum fees (or a Sessional payment) and travel expenses are paid. If anyone is at all interested further details in the first instance can be gained from Barbara Sandland (PA to Professor Chapman, Head of School of Pharmacy, Keele University) on 01782 734131. Applications should be forwarded to Dr Grant Ingrams at
gji@nhs.net.
THE CAMERON FUND – THE GPs’ OWN CHARITY
The Cameron Fund is the only medical charity which provides help and support solely to general practitioners and their dependants. It aims to meet needs that vary considerably from the elderly in nursing homes to young, chronically sick doctors and their families and those suffering from unexpected and unpredictable problems such as relationship breakdown or financial difficulties following the actions of professional regulatory bodies. Anyone who knows of someone experiencing difficulties, hardship or distress is urged to draw attention to the Cameron Fund’s existence or alternatively to contact Jane Cope, the Services Manager at
janecope@cameronfund.org.uk or 020 7388 0796. The address is: Tavistock House North, Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9HR.
WEST MIDLANDS DEANERY
The West Midlands Deanery has re-launched its website and can be found at:
They are also on Twitter under the user name “GPeducation”.
2008/09 CERTIFICATE OF GP (& non GP) PROVIDER NHS PENSIONABLE INCOME
The BMA pensions department have asked for us to circulate information regarding 2008/09 Certificate of GP provider NHS pensionable income, including limited companies. Please click on the link :
Please remember that a GP Provider must complete a Certificate for each GMS, PMS, APMS contract that they are a party to even if the contracts are all with the same PCT/LHB. This means that you may have several Certificates to complete.
Non-GP Providers however can only be pensionable in one of their posts by virtue that they are afforded WT Officer Scheme status; not Practitioner.
At the end of year 2009/10 (and in future years) salaried GPs/long term fee based GPs will have to complete an EOY Certificate in order to reconcile their tiered contributions. Look out for more information to come on this.
The same broadly applies to GP Locums however forms A & B have been tweaked so that they do not need to complete yet another form in 2008/09. If a GP Provider is also a GP Locum any arrears (or overpayments) of their GP Locum employee contributions in 2008/09 must be reconciled with the relevant PCT/LHB via the forms A & B and not via the Cert.
The 2008/09 Ltd Company Certificate, that many APMS contractor clients may use by virtue that most are set up as limited companies is also on the same website link with relating documentation.
BIRMINGHAM MEDICO-LEGAL SOCIETY
The Council of the BMLS are keen to promote the Society to doctors in the West Midlands. Membership of the BMLS provides the opportunity to meet colleagues from the medical, legal and dental professions on a social basis and to hear presentations on a variety of topics of general interest. They have asked if we can distribute their flyer to all GPs in Worcestershire. Please click on this link below to open the flyer:
SINGLE POINT OF ACCESS SERVICE / COUNTY COUNCIL HUB
On Monday, 9th November 2009 the Worcester News rang a story where it claimed that the Hub at the County Council were providing a poor and 'diabolical' service and in particular the issue was raised about the length of time it takes to get through to the Hub before a call is answered. We have since been contacted by them to clarify the situation and make sure that all practices are clear about the service and about which number they should be calling. They have sent the following message:
“I would like to take this opportunity to reassure and remind you that the Hub is not the first point of contact for the Single Point of Access Service and that a separate number, dedicated to professionals only, is available when a professional needs to make either a Single Point of Access or Social Care referral - 01905 768053. This number is answered by the Access Centre Customer Advisors, not the Hub team.
Over recent weeks it has been brought to my attention that some professionals are confusing the contact numbers published for both the Hub and the Access Centre, with many professionals incorrectly contacting the Hub.
To clarify: the Access Centre - 01905 768053 - is a professional only line for all Single Point of Access and Social Care referrals. The Hub - 0845 607 200 - is a public line for all enquiries related to the County Council, or for members of the public wishing to access social care services.
As you may have read in the Worcester News, call waiting times for the Hub are reported to be in excess of 15 minutes with many calls being abandoned before pick up. Our call monitoring statistics for the SPA Professional Line, via the Access Centre, evidence an average call waiting time of 21 seconds. I would therefore urge that whenever possible professionals remember to use the dedicated line - 01905 768053.
Many thanks for your continuing support with the Single Point of Access Service.”
If you would like more clarification about this then we would recommend that you contact either Andrew Morley, the Access Centre Manager on
PANDEMIC FLU UPDATE
We have been notified of new documents that are now available regarding Pandemic Flu which are as follows:
H1N1 vaccination DES (DOH)
GMC – Update to guidance for doctors working in a pandemic
Letter from Ian Dalton to GPs regarding Swine Flu Vaccine Distribution – 23 October 2009 (DOH)
Clinical Management Guidelines for adults and children (DH)
Swine flu vaccination programme: Information to support the vaccination of pregnant women
Clinical professionals brief on swine flu vaccination (DH)
A practical guide on how to prepare and administer the H1N1 vaccine (DH)
Pandemic flu templates
The DH has republished the pandemic flu templates to support PCTs and LMCs in planning and responding to capacity challenges in the management of pandemic flu.
http://www.pcc.nhs.uk/pandemic
For all other legislation that has been updated or put on the LMC website please see below.
PARALLEL EXPORTING
At a previous LMC meeting it has been brought to our attention that due to the fallen value of the pound medication is being exported from Britain for sale elsewhere. This is the complete opposite to the problem of parallel importing which existed some years ago. Such has been the degree of this that there has been supply problems which have certainly occurred to our knowledge in Worcestershire. We have highlighted this to all our local MPs and they have been lobbying the Department of Health about this. However, the GPC has also been in discussion and joint guidance has been issued which sets out key legal and ethical obligations on manufacturers, wholesalers, NHS Trusts, registered pharmacists and dispensing doctors in relation to the supply and trading of medicines. The Statement and document will be on the GPC homepage of the BMA website shortly and will be on our own website.
STOP SMOKING LES
As soon as we saw this document we flagged up real worries with the PCT. On reflection those concerns have grown. We feel it is not fit for purpose and have told the PCT Chief Exec, Commissioning manager, Director of Finance, Director of Public Health and Head of Primary Care and so far we have had no positive response whatsoever. We are not clear who at the PCT is taking responsibility for this LES.
We object to the stunning level of bureaucracy. The process of accreditation is way over the top and finally those of us who have properly costed the thing are not even sure it is viable! We have not asked for a legal opinion over the 190+ page contract but maybe we should!! (Why should the PCT see 3 years of our accounts?!)
Apparently it has been agreed as a way to boost results but it is likely to see a reduction in the service in primary care. To date we understand less than a third of Worcestershire practices have even expressed an interest! However, we hear that Elgar healthcare and Assura are interested. We support the principle of boosting quit rates but do not feel that this is helpful.
We are also unhappy that at a time when PBC schemes are being blocked by the NHS about turn which now favours outside private providers this is still being promoted. That is clearly unfair.
The LMC has suggested a local scheme either as a local LES or even via PBC to allow this valuable work to continue in practices otherwise many of us will simply pull the plug and refer patients to the quit line service. If you are expressing an interest in the LES we would encourage you to carefully cost the service using your own figures based on current quit rates. We have yet to hear from anybody who feels it is viable. We have put the issue on the agenda for next week’s GPCWM meeting. We hope that a sensible compromise will allow patients to get this treatment in all Worcestershire’s practices.
I.T. ISSUES
Dr Richard Kinsman from Droitwich represents the LMC on the I.T. Primary Care Working Group. He strongly believes that there is need for some additional representation, particularly from Redditch and Bromsgrove. This is not an onerous duty and if there is anybody who will be prepared to attend please contact either the LMC or Dr Kinsman directly. In addition to this he attends the Pathology User Group and again feels that general practice is under-represented. A GP or a Practice Manager from Wyre Forest, Malvern or Pershore would be very desirable. Work of both of these groups impact significantly on general practice. Please would somebody come forward and give this a go! Dr Kinsman can be contacted at
richard.kinsman@nhs.net.
SIGNIFICANT EVENT AUDITS
The question of whether significant event audits are confidential or discoverable, has come up of late. Due to the problems where the critical opinions expressed either formally on the SEA report form or informally in the discussion prior to filling out the form are discoverable, either legally or under the Freedom of Information Act. Obviously unless SEA’s are not discoverable, any discussion could be severely circumscribed or useless because of the risk of libel, if an opinion were anything but fully accurate and not contestable. The GPC has been asked for an opinion about this, but in the meantime we would certainly suggest that if you do this work on your practice computer system SAE reports should not be in the patient record.
10:10 CAMPAIGN
Dr Adam Thompson from Elbury Moor Medical Centre has brought to the attention of the LMC an interesting project called the 10:10 campaign. Briefly this is a commitment from individual families; businesses and organisations to cut their carbon emissions by 10% by the end of 2010. The LMC felt this was a very worthwhile project and would commend this to practices. Full details can be found on their website which is
www.1010uk.org.
WORCESTERSHIRE LMC WEBSITE
The following guidance has been added to the LMC website during the last month:
BMA/GPC guidance:
DOH:
GMC:
NHS Employers:
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