Londonwide LMCs

Dear colleague,

Welcome to our autumn newsletter, your elected LMC representatives (2025-2028) are:

Dr Mohammad Alzarrad, Lady Margaret Road Surgery
Dr Dina Ashraf, Corfton Road Surgery
Dr Sidhartha Datta, Churchfield Surgery
Dr Jaz Dhillon, Sessional
Dr Kamini Gautam, KS Medical Centre
Dr Arim Ismail, Sessional
Dr Mark Mikhail, Chepstow Garden Medical Centre
Dr Jay Patel, Crown Street Surgery
Dr Miraj Patel, Sessional
Dr Ravi Ramanathan, Gordon House Surgery
Dr Onkar Sahota, Greenford Avenue Family Health Practice
Dr Vichitar Sanghera, Southall Medical Centre
Dr Sukhpal Shergill, Sessional

Coopted:

Dr Ramesh Bhatt, Grove Medical Practice
Kathryn Charles, Grove Medical Practice
Yaksheeta Dave, Hillview Surgery

What is the LMC and what do we do?

The Local Medical Committee (LMC) works on your behalf to represent the interest of all GPs in Ealing. We are here for partners, salaried GPs, locums and their practice staff. If you have a specific practice-related issue then our GP support team can help via GPSupport@lmc.org.uk.

Chair and Vice Chair

I am Dr Sukhpal Shergill, Chair of the Ealing LMC, and my colleague, Dr Mark Mikhail, is the Vice Chair of the Ealing LMC. We also have Dr Sid Datta, who is the Chair of the Londonwide LMC and the EHH LMC, of which Ealing LMC is part, as a member of the Ealing LMC.

What has Ealing LMC been working on recently?

Ensuring practices receive payments for ARRS funding for GPs 26/27. The ARRS funding arrangements for practices, which changed for 26/27, now allow the recruitment of experienced GPs and not just newly qualified GPs. While a number of Ealing practices are making excellent use of this funding, it is estimated a third of practices are not. The Ealing LMC would urge all practices to take up this funding stream. If you are not sure of the claiming process or have further delays, please speak to your local colleagues or contact the Ealing LMC, via ian.oakley@lmc.org.uk and we will seek to help.
Ealing Council Blue Badges. An Ealing LMC member highlighted that the wording and presentation of an email from Ealing Council to a patient, which suggested requesting further medical information from GPs, in support of a Blue Badge application. This advice would generate increased workload on GPs. The Ealing LMC contacted Ealing Council, with a suggested change of wording, and the Council has responded positively and agreed to amend their wording. Quoting directly from Ealing Council’s response ‘the letter now makes clear that the applicants do not need to book a GP appointment solely for a Blue Badge application.’ This is a case study in how the Ealing LMC works to protect local GPs, working with with our partners, in a constructive manner, whether the local council or secondary care.
West and North London (WNL) ICB reorganisation. Since April, the new WNL ICB has replaced the former NWL and NCL ICBs. This new ICBs span 13 London boroughs and serve a population roughly equivalent to that of New Zealand. However, it operates with approximately 50% less funding per head than its predecessors. Given these significant changes, we understand that GPs are facing challenges in interfacing with the new ICB, on issues such as IT and finance. Ensuring that GPs have clear routes to escalate issues and influence decision‑making is a key priority for Ealing LMC and Londonwide LMC and we have had good response from the ICB on the issues raised.
Managing enhanced service specifications for 26/27 and Inflationary uplift. We have continued to provide input into the North West London Single Offer, such as access, cardiorenalmetabolic, respiratory enhanced service specifications. We continue to make representations on safety, delivery and value for money for each of these workstreams. Ealing LMC and Londonwide LMC are seeking an inflationary uplift to the contract value, as has occurred in previously. In 25/26 the ICB provided an inflationary uplift to single offer services, applied in-year through two staged contract variations. It has been requested by Londonwide LMC that the 26/27 single offer budget also be increased in line with the GP national contract uplift. The ICB has agreed and is awaiting national confirmation of the amount before it can proceed. It has also confirmed that any increase in-year would be backdated to the start of the financial year. We have continued to make representation on ensuring warfarin retainers are reinstituted for PCNs providing anticoagulation services.
Interface issues. We have been attending Ealing Senate and Community Interface meetings and established good working relationships with Primary Car Liaison Officers, Acute Trust Medical Directors, Community Trust management team, West London Mental Health trust, Medical Laboratory services. Clinician/managers from these providers have provided personal pledges to resolve interface issues and we are seeing progress on many matters being raised, please contact myself, Mark or Sid to ensure you are signposted to the relevant team. Examples include, delays in xray reporting, MAR charts (palliative MAAR charts still under discussion), phlebotomy delays and hospitals issuing Fit notes.

Resources available

🌊 GP Survival Guide
👩🏻‍💻 Webinars and initial response to 2026/27 GP contract details
🤝 Shared care pathways
💼 Jobs board
🎓 Events and training

FP69 advocacy and information gathering

Londonwide LMCs have continued to raise the issues affecting London practices, including meeting with MPs, briefing journalists, speaking to the voluntary sector and gathering first-hand details from some of the hardest hit practices. Our most recent analysis of NHS data shows that London has lost over 315,000 registered patients between January and September.

If your practice has not recently updated us on how FP69 is impacting you please do so via this form or email us. To make the case for a change of approach we need individual figures and insights, alongside official statistics.

LMC Engagement – What’s the best way to contact you?

Ealing LMC is currently looking at how it engages with our colleagues in general practice across the Borough and we would be grateful if you would let us know the most efficient way(s) of reaching you. We are open to any method of communication and would appreciate your feedback regarding the methods we could adopt. These could include (but are not limited to):

Social media
Local Practice visits
Attending meetings/events
Clinical group meetings
PCN CD meetings
PM forums
Email alerts

In addition to the above we would be grateful if you could let us know how regularly you wish to be updated, we are keen to keep you as up to date as possible with the work that the LMC is carrying out on your behalf but not overburden you. If you want to provide feedback regarding the above questions, please contact Ian Oakley.

Get new deals with the Londonwide LMCs Buying Group

Our Buying Group suppliers not only offer great deals to practices looking to switch, they also aim to offer the best value to existing customers in the Londonwide LMCs area, including explaining new products and features as they get rolled out.

Hillcroft Surgery Supplies – Get next day delivery and industry leading stock availability, thanks to their investment in substantial warehouse facilities.
X-on Health – Automates more tasks within your phone system, integrates with clinical records, seamlessly bridges in and out-of-hours and offers ambient scribe technology.
Practice Index – Pick and choose what you need out of their learning platform, or software to manage HR, finance, compliance and rotas.
Hippo Labs – Have your call-and-recall work smarter, reach more patients and improve QOF attainment. Hippo Labs automatically customises many types of message.
Equity Energies – Reduce energy costs, save time, become greener and remove the administrative burden of managing utilities by having experts do it all for you.
MIAB – You existing policies may have more gaps than you think, particularly in developing areas like cyber and ARRS employment. Rely on MIAB’s specialist expertise to ensure you are fully covered.
Restore Information Management – Whether you need a room full of records doing or a steady flow of new registrations, Restore take the hassle out of digitising patient records.
Tickets for Good – Reward yourself and your colleagues with free and discounted tickets to concerts, theatre shows, sports and more!

Get deals

Get in touch!

All constituents can raise any issues of concern with the LMC at any time. It would be great to hear from constituents on any feedback or issue you may have from operational concerns with NWL Enhanced Services Single Offer. Please feel free to contact ian.oakley@lmc.org.uk.

Thank you for those of you who contact LMC committee members about issues as they arise. Please do reach out to LMC members or Ian. We are keen to hear from our local GPs and practice teams about any issues you are facing. We are here to represent your views.

Yours Faithfully,

Dr Sukhpal Shergill

Ealing LMC Chair

Londonwide’s NWL LMC Team

Ian Oakley, Committee Liaison Executive, ian.oakley@lmc.org.uk
Dr Hannah Theordorou, LMC Secretary/Medical Director
Jamie Wright, Director of Primary Care
Lesley Williams, Assistant Director of Primary Care

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