News

Practices are currently facing a significant challenge as capacity is reduced by the need to adhere to infection control measures and pent up demand from patients staying away from practices during the early stages of the pandemic has been released, with these people now seeking appointments in large numbers. Against this difficult background we are […]

9 July 2020 Dear Colleague The Chancellor’s summer statement came and went yesterday with little to no benefit for primary care or health providers generally. The deafening silence about, and lack of support for, general practice ignores the fact that the effort to protect people from coronavirus has been a joint endeavour by every single person delivering […]

The latest offer in Londonwide LMCs’ free development support for practice managers, or to a nominated other member of the team who would benefit. This series of three workshops will run from 10:15am-12:30pm via Zoom on consecutive Wednesdays commencing 5 August 2020. Delegates are encouraged to attend all three workshops which will comprise a mix […]

2 July 2020 Dear Colleague With the 72nd anniversary of the NHS approaching, and with the concerns most of us must all be feeling for the future of our patient-centred holistic GP model of care, it feels a wholly appropriate time to reflect on the importance of general practice to the patients and citizens to […]

26 June 2020 Dear Colleague Thank you so much for sharing your concerns and stories about the management of referrals for phlebotomy, ultrasounds and other investigations, and the asks made of practices in some areas. We are urgently raising these concerns on your behalf and working with STP clinical leads to try to find a […]

The Government has recently released two Public Health England (PHE) reports looking into the impact of coronavirus on people from BAME backgrounds. The reports were written by Professor Kevin Fenton with Covid-19: review of disparities in risks and outcomes being released on 2 June and Covid-19: understanding the impact on BAME communities on 16 June. Following the publication of […]

The CQC will resume routine inspections of GP practices in the autumn, with no start date specified yet. Since the middle of May the CQC has been remotely monitoring practices via its emergency support framework, with inspections normally taking the form of a phone call. The CQC say that inspection activity remains paused and has stated that […]

Since 15 June it has been mandatory for passengers over the age of 11 to wear face coverings on public transport in London, as well as in private hire vehicles. This has resulted in some patients approaching GP practices asking for doctor’s notes to exempt them from the requirement on health grounds, for example if they […]

June 2020 Newsletter Official studies: BAME people at increased risk from Covid-19 PHE has produced a two-part report which suggests BAME people are at disproportionate risk from Covid-19, with a number of contributing social factors. READ MORE   ► TFL face covering exemption Londoners can now print off and display cards which say they are […]