Dear colleagues,
Your LMC is here to support you in times which are very difficult for GPs and everyone working in practices. We meet once a month – any Camden GP who needs support with a professional issue can contact us via sarah.ocran@lmc.org.uk. We will be sending out short regular newsletters so that you know how we are acting on your behalf – some of our recent achievements are as follows.
We have also been working hard across the LMCs in North Central London to feed in the views of general practice as the NCL Long Term Conditions LCS is developed. As we go into the new financial year it will be useful to hear about your experiences of the new service so that we can raise any concerns or issues with the ICB.
We are working very hard with our local Trusts to ensure that the primary/secondary care interface works as it should do. Dr Agrawal attends the UCH interface meeting and Dr Ben Bromilow attends the RFH meetings on behalf of the LMC alongside other GP PCN directors or federation leads.
We fully support the BMA and Londonwide LMCs campaign on un-resourced work and would encourage GPs who experience workload shift to return this work to the hospital and submit a quality alert to the CCG via the contacts on this page. These might include a consultant asking you to do a blood test (instead of giving the patient a form directly), a request to refer a patient back in two years for a repeat endoscopy (these should be kept on the books at secondary care and recalled), or an inappropriate request for the GP to refer elsewhere. Referrals from one consultant to another should be done directly, assuming that the reason is either related to the original referral, or urgent. Please feed these issues back to the relevant Trust, uclh.gpqueries@nhs.net for UCH and for RFH, rf.gpliaison@nhs.
In addition, we have set up a NCL wide Mental Health interface with Camden & Islington Mental health Trust and Barnet, Haringey and Enfield Mental health trust. Both trusts are supported by Dr Vincent Kirchner, who is acting MD for both services. As a result of the 2 meetings, we have agreed:
- A commitment for ongoing mental health interface meetings with colleagues from both the trusts and LMCs.
- Review letter to form the basis of a template for use by consultants to ensure consistency of information and guidance provided to GPs following a patient’s appointment.
Other topics discussed at the first meeting included:
- Issues faced by general practice relating to adult ADHD including prescribing arrangements previously agreed by private providers.
- CAMHS shared care protocols for ADHD and depression.
- The process for ensuring the prescribing arrangements are transferred to adult services from CAMHS at the age of 18.
- CAMHS in Camden is provided by the Tavistock and Portman, not C&I but to act as link to influence best practice.
For any mental health service issues that you want the LMC to raise at the interface meetings please contact joni.wilson-kaye@lmc.org.uk.
Also, look out for information about the forthcoming LMC election which is due to begin in April for the new term in September 2023. For any further details about membership please email sarah.ocran@lmc.org.uk.
Best wishes,
Dr Tina Agrawal, Chair, Camden LMC
Dr Natalie Rout, Vice-Chair, Camden LMC