Newcastle and North Tyneside

Newcastle and North Tyneside Local Medical Committee

http://www.nntlmc.co.uk

LMC Newsletter August 2017

New GPC Chair. The LMC was delighted to hear about the successful appointment of Richard Vautrey as the new chair of the General Practitioners Committee. Our area knows Richard well and he has visited us on a number of occasions in the past and we are sure he will make an excellent replacement to Chaand.

Multispeciality Community Provider (MCP) Briefing Document & Survey. With the NHS moving to new models of care with the likelihood that a MCP would be the favourable model in our areas, the LMC is concerned about the lack of knowledge that is apparent with front line practitioners. Busy clinicians rarely have the headspace to think about these things but it is important that they have some knowledge about what could be a major change in the way they deliver care. The LMC has prepared a briefing document about MCPs that is available here http://www.nntlmc.co.uk/styled-3/downloads-28/index.html and we are undertaking a survey that will help LMCs and CCGs.

Link for the survey is https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/VQDH6WS

Also the LMC may be holding open meetings to discuss these issues further in the new year depending upon progress made.

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GP Health Service. The newly-launched NHS GP Health Service is a free and confidential self-referral service for GPs and GP trainees who are suffering with a mental health concern, including stress, burnout or depression, or an addiction issue. The NHS GP Health service will help GPs with: Common and more complex mental health conditions  Mental health conditions relating to a physical health issue  Substance misuse including support for community detoxification  Rehabilitation and support to return to work after a period of mental ill-health.

The service may be accessed by:  Any general practitioner or GP Trainee who is registered on the National Performers List in England, or,  Any GP or GP trainee who is looking to return to clinical practice after a period of absence.

Dr Richard Duggins, Clinical Lead for GP Health in the North East and Cumbria, will provide the initial assessments and follow-up. His Professor Gilvarry and Dr Hearn will provide expert support for issues with alcohol or other substances.

The confidential service can be accessed by emailing [email protected] or by calling 0300 0303 300. The service is available 8am – 8pm Monday – Friday and 8am – 2pm Saturday.

NHS Guidance – Raising Concerns. This is a reminder for practices to ensure their policies and procedures align with the new NHS whistleblowing policy, by September this year. Further information, including a link to the NHS England guidance on raising concerns for primary care providers, is available here:

2 Newcastle and North Tyneside Local Medical Committee https://www.bma.org.uk/advice/employment/raising-concerns/guidance-on-raising-concerns- for-primary-care-providers

Training for Sessional/Locum GPs. As sessional/locum GPs become a bigger part of the workforce it is important that they have the same opportunities to attend the training or educational events that other GPs have access to. Therefore it is vital that information about these events are shared with these GPs who undertake sessions within your practice.

GMC Website. The regional LMCs recently had a presentation form the GMC that emphasised the amount of useful information they have on their website. Below are some of the relevant links:  Medical licensing assessment (the FAQs are really helpful)  Update on the review of the List of Registered Medical Practitioners (which we consulted on in 2016) and news story regarding Scope of practice.  Revalidation Sir Keith Pearson review – full report, our response and handy short You Tube video here  The State of medical education and practice 2016 – report on our data  Updated GMC guidance on Confidentiality (in force from 25 April 2017) and handy ‘What’s changed?’ summary  All of our professional ethical guidance lives here online. We have a host of learning materials too.  Our ‘Hot topics’ are online and circulated via GMC News. They include topics like the Montgomery decision regarding consent and FGM mandatory reporting.  Free GMC My GMP app launched in 2016 – our guidance and other resources on the go

Supporting doctors who are new to the UK  Our Welcome to UK practice page explains about our free half day programmes and the online scenario tool.

Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD). Over 800 GP member practices across the UK contribute anonymised patient data to CPRD. This data is vital to organisations such as the MHRA and researchers to analyse drug and vaccine safety, evaluate the effectiveness of interventions and healthcare delivery, develop clinical guidance and best practice, and to monitor past and future trends across diseases and risk factors. CPRD data was used to confirm the safety of the pertussis vaccine during pregnancy, identify the predictive value of common primary care symptoms for cancer and show that there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Further public health improvements are possible if more practices contribute data.

Benefits for practices include the option of receiving regular practice-level feedback to help improve outcomes for patients and the opportunity to take part in clinical studies, ranging from GP questionnaires to clinical trials. These can be an useful way of earning extra income while demonstrating that your practice is at the forefront of evidence-based healthcare.

Joining CPRD is simple, quick and free. Practices just need to complete an online joining form, after which data collection occurs with no extra work for practice staff. For more information, visit https://www.cprd.com/generalpractitioner/ or email [email protected]

Intra Ocular Pressure Referral Refinement Scheme. Patients with raised IOP and no other signs of glaucoma can be referred to local optometrists within the scheme for onward management. The Local Optometrist Committee is keen to promote awareness of this scheme.

Changes to NHS Standard Contract. The interface between primary and secondary care is changing with the new Standard NHS Contract coming into force in April 2017. As mentioned previously there are differences between what practices have been told by the GPC and what is in the contract wording. The LMC is working with the CCGs and FTs to ensure these changes are implemented but patience is needed and we need to avoid confrontation with our colleagues who are under just as much bureaucratic pressure as general practice. Nevertheless any issues need to be raised and the CCG have asked that the SIRMS process is used so they can collate the information.

Centre for Health and Disability Assessments – ESA 113 forms. This service is provided by Maximus on behalf of the DWP and the LMC recently met with them to discuss the quantity and quality of the ESA 113 returns and related forms. They are keen to have relevant medical evidence only and have produced a national leaflet to this effect. The LMC has challenged some aspects of their information but overall the content will lead to a simpler process hopefully. Useful information is available here https://www.chdauk.co.uk/frequently-asked- questions-gps

Indemnity Issues. These issues remain a top priority for the national team but locally we have tried to ask all the main MDOs how they calculate premiums, what they cover etc. This is a minefield as they all say different things so we have collated the information into one document and GPs can then look at their relevant MDO section to try and understand their cover. This is particularly important for GPs undertaking out of hours work or some of the extended access schemes. 5 Newcastle and North Tyneside Local Medical Committee

See here for the document http://www.nntlmc.co.uk/styled-3/downloads- 37/index.html

LMC Website Blog This contains a lot of important information on the following issues:  Latest LMC minutes available..  GP News from the Chair...

See http://www.nntlmc.co.uk/blog/index.html

GPC News, GP News from the Chair and local issues. This months GPC News contains some important information on:  Adult social care – UK  BMA ballot of GP practices in England on collective list closure – England only  CPs (Clinical Pharmacist) in General Practice Programme – Phase 2, Wave 1 and 2 Figures – England only  Capped Expenditure Process – England only  GP Patient Survey – England only  GP Recruitment Round Two – England only  Information about switching careers – FAQs and examples – England only  NHS issues advice on mental health care for people affected by terror attacks and Grenfell - UK  PCSE claims guidance – England  Sessional GPs e-newsletter – UK

For national issues from the GPC with relevant links etc. please see the LMC website: http://www.nntlmc.co.uk/styled-3/downloads-2/index.html and http://www.nntlmc.co.uk/page55/index.html

Also please watch your LMC Blog http://www.nntlmc.co.uk/blog/index.html Use of the LMC RSS feed on the Blog page will automate your updates.

Website The LMC now has a Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Newcastle-North-Tyneside-LMC/252898648158228

We hope that most of the LMC’s communication will be by way of our website and that practices will use the LMC RSS Feed for automatic notification of new information.

See http://www.nntlmc.co.uk and try it out

George Rae Chief Executive Officer David Black Executive Officer Ken Megson Executive Officer