Dear colleague,
Following LMC elections this summer, Camden LMC started a new three-year term of office on 1 September 2025, with the newly elected LMC being confirmed at its Inaugural meeting last month. We would like to take this opportunity to introduce ourselves as the Co-Chairs of Camden LMC, alongside Co-Vice-Chairs, Dr Marie-Laure Morelli and Dr Ann-Marie Tully.
Camden LMC Membership and Contact info
Who we are
Your Camden LMC members for the 2025-2028 term are:
- Dr Tina Agrawal, Museum Practice (principal)
- Dr Abhishek Bhattacharya, Bloomsbury Surgery (salaried)
- Dr Lucy Cannon, Philips Medical Centre (salaried)
- Dr Sacha Dhanjal, Hampstead Group Practice (salaried)
- Dr Farah Jameel, Museum Practice (salaried)
- Dr Marie-Laure Morelli, Parliament Hill Medical Centre (salaried)
- Dr Amber Saleem, Keats Group Practice (salaried)
- Dr Ann-Marie Tully, Parliament Hill Medical Centre, (principal)
- Dr Cem Gokhan, GP Trainee representative (Job share) Gower Street Practice
- Dr Shreeya Kotecha, GP Trainee representative (job share) Swiss Cottage Surgery
- Ms Tania Fidler, Practice Manager Observer, Swiss Cottage Surgery
- Ms Corrina Louise Gray-Practice Nurse Observer, Adelaide Medical Centre
Join Camden LMC
Camden LMC currently has a vacancy for a GP working in Camden. We look for representation from GP partners, salaried and locum GPs. If you are looking for a new opportunity to bring issues affecting general practice to the notice of the LMC and to represent the views of practice colleagues, or want more information, please contact Dr Tina Agrawal or Dr Farah Jameel via emailing sarah.ocran@lmc.org.uk.
What we do
We are here to support practices and to represent the interests of all local GPs and their practice teams. To do this effectively we are relying on you to please reach out to us with any issues or concerns by emailing Sarah Ocran, Committee Liaison Executive sarah.ocran@lmc.org.uk.
What has Camden LMC been working on recently?
GP referrals to virtual wards
In September, we (Dr Agrawal and Dr Morelli) met with clinical staff from the Central and Northwest London Foundation Trust (CNWL) and UCLH representatives as well as Dr Stuart Mackay-Thomas; to discuss concerns we received about challenges GPs have been experiencing when making direct referrals to Camden Virtual Wards, including referral pathways and threshold for referrals. We will continue meeting on a regular basis to address this issue and any further developments.
Engagement with Camden Council
We (Drs Jameel and Agrawal) meet regularly with Councillor Anna Wright (Cabinet Member for Health, Wellbeing and Adult Social Care) to ensure better collaborative working. Our recent meeting focused on:
- Neighbourhood integration
- Over The Counter Medication (OTC)
- Schools asking for GPs to prescribe medication
- Safeguarding issues (challenges relating to MASH referrals)
- Mental health services and substance misuse including the lack of a dual diagnosis service prevent patients accessing services.
Engagement with Camden Public Health
Dr Agrawal met with the Camden Public Health Team and Dr Sarah Morgan (GP Consultant Lead for Camden’s Smoking Portfolio) to discuss a new payment proposal around Smoking Cessation Locally Commissioned Service (LCS) payment uplifts. The proposed payment model will take account of both cost of activity and comparability with national model.
DALS Interpreting Service
Dr Agrawal recently fed back to LW LMC colleagues, about her practice’s concerns regarding the interpreting service provided by DALS, which had been causing ongoing operational challenges within her practice and negatively impacting patient care. These concerns and similar concerns from around the boroughs were discussed at a meeting with representatives from DALs as well as the ICB and including NCL LMCs Chairs/Vice Chairs. The DALS team was very responsive to concerns raised and are keen to receive feedback about specific cases so that they can investigate the issues arising. We have been advised that if you can hold on at the end of a phone call for 15 seconds you will be given the option to score the translator from 1-5 (anyone scoring 3 or below will be reviewed by DALS). The ICB has also agreed to see if a feedback system can be set up using ACCURX.
RAISE Camden
Dr Agrawal also represented the LMC (the only clinician present) at the first meeting of the RAISE Camden Advisory Partnership Group, which is a group established to provide a forum for community and resident voices to help shape and champion change to improve child health inequity in Camden. The group which also includes heads of schools, public health, housing and local councillors and VCSE, and is focusing on families living in temporary accommodation in the borough and the health inequity they experience.
Development of Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs)
Dr Jameel and Dr Agrawal wrote to the convenors of the Camden Borough Partnership meetings, to recommend that Camden LMC representative is invited to the Borough Partnership Meetings. These meetings are the main forum where key decisions are being made about the organisation of health care services, including INTs. The LMC has a statutory duty to represent GPs at a local level, and we feel that it is important that the voice of GPs is represented. During the summer we also participated in the Camden Borough INT Workshop, to ensure the that the voice of the GPs we represent is heard.
Primary/secondary interface
We (Dr Agrawal and Dr Tully) have been attending the Trust Clinical Interface Groups, University College Hospital, Royal Free Hospital and the Whittington Hospital, to highlight and challenge un-resourced workload shift from secondary to primary care, work for improvements in discharge summaries and clinic letters and continued progress towards EPS. We have also continued our work with NLFT colleagues as part of an ongoing series of mental health clinical interface meetings. If you have any concerns over interface issues, please let us know by emailing sarah.ocran@lmc.org.uk and we will raise them on your behalf.
Feedback on Clinical Pathway Reviews and Share Care Agreements
We have been reviewing and providing feedback on clinical pathways reviews and shared care agreements, which has led to meaningful changes in pathway design. Our feedback We also attend and continue to engage on the Long-Term Conditions Locally Commissioned Service (LTCs LCS) including matters of funding and service design, as well as the commissioning intentions and finding for other Locally Commissioned Services (LCSs).
Local Engagement
We will continue to attend local meetings, with local GPs and PCN fora, to hear about the challenges you are facing on the ground and feeding that information back to the LMC to ensure your views and concerns are recognised and acted upon. We will be sending you regular newsletters to keep you informed about our work. We will also be embarking on a more personal practice/ constituency engagement to hear and listen to your concerns about the pressures working as GPs.
Refreshed Londonwide LMCs Buying Group
Our substantially updated Buying Group offer is now live, bringing high quality products, service, opportunities and offers to London general practice at the best prices and with the best possible deals.
The offer now includes a supplier for each of these areas: consumables, insurance, training and practice support and wellbeing (including free and discounted tickets to music, theatre and sports events). In addition, we have four suppliers for digital and tech services covering: cloud telephony, records digitisation, call-and-recall automation and patient registration automation.
Londonwide LMC GP Support Team
The team offers help and guidance on all practice-related matters including contracts, performance, premises, payments, mergers and retirement and can be contacted via emailing GPSupport@lmc.org.uk.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Tina Agrawal Co-Chair, Camden LMC
Dr Farah Jameel Co-Chair, Camden LMC
