Update February 2024: With this being an election year we are looking for information from anyone working in practice who may have had prior contact with local MP candidates, both in terms of who is standing and if a candidate has had previous interactions with a practice. This list of parliamentary candidates is regularly updated and may help you to check if you or your practice knows any candidates in your area. By making contact early there is greater potential for Londonwide LMCs and your area LMCs to influence candidates in the event they become a newly elected MP.
For example, on 1 February representatives of Waltham Forest LMC met Stella Creasy MP (Lab, Walthamstow) and used the meeting to raise workforce, premises, the trade-offs of increasing access and a number of other issues.
We tell part of the story of general practice using data gathered via our regular workforce surveys and the new General Practice Alert State reporting system, which we are currently rolling out in London .But human stories are far more impactful than data and we need people working in general practice to tell your story and show the people behind the jobs in general practice. These case studies help us to:
- Get media coverage – before putting anyone in touch with a media outlet, we talk to the journalist and carefully consider what they want, and then provide helpful briefings and support for anyone taking part.
- Raise issues with local MPs – local workers and practice staff are essential to understand the local issues in any given area. These meetings also receive extensive support from the Londonwide LMCs’ team and represent a great opportunity to get MPs on-side.
- Create online campaigning resources – we often talk to GPs, nurses, and other practice staff to understand where new resources would be helpful. We then record and edit together short videos with clips of GPs and practice team members speaking, which we use on social media and share with practices to use on practice websites. All we need is a few minutes on a video call to gather the footage.
Anyone in the practice team can take part in these activities, as long as you can speak clearly about your work, what you do, and how that affects patient care.
We are particularly keen to find issues where both practice staff and patients are willing to speak about the same topics, underlining the key point that general practice and patients are on the same side, and general practice is doing everything it can on behalf of patients, rather than somehow impeding care.
If you think you can help, and would like to work with Londonwide LMCs to give a voice to frontline general practice, please fill in this form. Our communications team will get in touch to speak about your experiences and the sorts of activity you may feel comfortable helping with.