Dear colleague,
Chair’s introduction
We begin a new term and I am grateful for the confidence in our committee to allow me to continue as your Chair. I am particularly excited that this will be a three-year term for this committee, which will allow us to really progress our aims and objectives.
Thank you to all of you who took part in last year’s LMC elections and for the support you show for strong, representative local GP leadership. We will continue to ensure that General Practice is at the heart of the local NHS and fully involved in shaping current developments such as neighbourhood working.
The local and national political landscape is turbulent and uncertain. As such, we believe the role of the LMC will be increasingly relevant during this term. A significant current concern is the likely imminent loss of our ICB Clinical Leads and local Primary Care commissioners. I would like to express the LMC’s appreciation of the hard work and dedication our colleagues in those roles have committed over the years and I hope that they can find a way to continue to contribute their knowledge and leadership.
Our two primary objectives for 2026 are:
- To establish and embed regular communication channels between the committee and all of you, our constituent practices. We want to hear more from you about what you’re experiencing, where we can help and what messages we should be relaying to the ICB and other system partners.
- A strategic approach to reducing inappropriate General Practice workload burden.
Waltham Forest LMC Membership and Contact info
New LMC membership
We welcome the new LMC members who were elected or co-opted last year: Dr Martha Jones and Dr Charlotte Morgan, and VTS reps Dr Irem Arican, Dr Ismail Ismail and Dr Jemma Webster. They join continuing members Dr Syed Akhtar, Dr Nick Brewer, Dr Suki Francis, Dr Gopal Mehta, Dr Lisa Milverton, Dr Vinay Patel (Chair), Dr Sweta Raj (Vice-chair) and Dr Henna Sinha, plus Practice Manager representative Geetha Rajah.
Farewell
We say goodbye with our sincere thanks to Dr Kathleen Wenaden, who stepped down at the election.
What has City & Hackney LMC been working on recently?
Constituent engagement
City & Hackney LMC is launching a PCN engagement programme to strengthen two-way communication between practices and the LMC, raise awareness of how Londonwide LMCs can support you, and identify practices that may benefit from proactive help. Each LMC committee member will link with a PCN (via the PCN CD or another agreed route), gather key issues and support needs, and feed these into the LMC agenda so we can act quickly and consistently. Please engage with your PCN to raise issues—and you can also contact the LMC directly at any time if there are issues you would like to discuss directly with us. Please email ian.williamson@lmc.org.uk.
Local contracts
The LMC and the Londonwide team are fully engaged in the NEL Enhanced Services (LCS) review; updates on progress are provided in the NEL newsletters.
We have formally requested a local impact analysis for City and Hackney covering the proposed LCS changes especially for the LTC scheme; and including clear answers on what will happen to the GP Quality and Engagement Contract, which represents a significant risk to general practice.
We continue to meet with the IPC to ensure changes to local enhanced services are sustainable for general practice. We have offered to work directly with the IPC to model and validate the practice-level income impact, including current vs proposed arrangements and quantification of any risk to practice income.
Language services
Local GP leaders have discussed patient and GP access to language services such as interpreters and Language Line. If you are experiencing any issues with accessing these services, please let us know – contact ian.williamson@lmc.org.uk.
Homerton changes to transport provider
Practices have raised that the new patient transport provider for the Homerton, DHL, is asking more often for GPs to book the transport, and for a named GP to confirm that patients with any cognitive impairment or memory problems are safe to travel unescorted. We have raised this with the Homerton and they are looking into it. Please let us know if this is a new or increased problem at your practice – contact ian.williamson@lmc.org.uk.
North East London sector issues
Many issues affecting City & Hackney also affect other boroughs in NEL. We work closely with our counterparts in other boroughs to address and resolve them at sector level. There is also a NEL newsletter for the sector work – the February issue covered Shared Care, Enhanced Services, MSK and ADHD pathways, GP phlebotomy, the formulary status of DOACs, ICB clinical leadership changes, the dementia pathway and referral form, Oliver McGowan training and the NEL winners at the London General Practice Awards. You can read it here.
London General Practice Awards 2026
On Thursday 5 February Londonwide LMCs held the annual London General Practice awards event in Parliament. Ben Coleman, MP for Chelsea and Fulham, hosted the event and presented two of the awards. This builds on previous engagement with Mr Coleman, who is also a member of the Health Select Committee. In attendance were around 200 representatives from LMCs, practices across London and key allies such as MPs, press, commissioners and local government representatives.
Among the winners were Springfield Park PCN from Hackney, who won the nursing team award. Their nomination said:
“This project reflects the tireless dedication of a multi-disciplinary team who responded rapidly to a local MMR outbreak with daily and Sunday clinics and home visits.
“They launched a culturally tailored, community-informed Enhanced Access Childhood Immunisation Service based on the ‘3 Cs’ framework of confidence, convenience, and complacency. This co-designed project significantly improved the MMR coverage from 17% in May 2025 to 48% in August 2025, delivering 2,584 vaccines in three months, demonstrating its replicability and impact on health equity.”
Speaking at the event, Dr Lisa Harrod-Rothwell, CEO, Londonwide LMCs said: “Last year we only just scratched the surface of the ways London’s GPs and practice teams are doing fantastic work for their patients in often very challenging circumstances. This year I am again delighted and humbled to hear about GPs who have been serving their patients for almost as long as I’ve been alive, a team working hand-in-hand with their local community to improve vaccination rates and patients giving up hours every week to help others understand how to use new online services.”
Londonwide LMCs Buying Group member MIAB, providers of specialist GP insurance, kindly sponsored the awards.
The full list of winners, judges, nominees and nominators
Exclusive deals for practices
Our substantially updated Buying Group offer provides a range of opportunities to save money and improve the quality of products and services you use.
- Get excellent prices and next day delivery on consumables, with a supplier who can respond quickly to your practice needs.
- Access a comprehensive online learning platform, plus packages to manage HR, finance, compliance and rotas.
- Let a specialist GP insurer make sure you have the right cover, with knowledge on developing areas like cyber security, AI scribes and contract holding at PCN level.
- Our records digitisation partners can help free up premises space and recent changes with the National Document Repository have improved practices’ options.
- Intelligent, end-to-end call-and-recall automation does more than simply send reminders, it tailors messages and helps to improve QOF.
- The latest in cloud telephony integrates with clinical systems, provides stats on patient contacts and automates many tasks.
- Reward yourself and your colleagues with free and discounted tickets to concerts, theatre shows, sports and more!
City & Hackney LMC
You can find contact information, meeting dates and membership information for City & Hackney LMC here.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Vinay Patel, Chair, City & Hackney LMC