Dear colleague,
North Central London LMCs newsletter – July 2025
LMC elections
Thank you to everyone who stood and voted in the recent LMC elections. Your LMC members for 2025-28 can be found here. The new members officially take up their posts on 1 September, so until then your existing LMC teams remain in place.
Londonwide Local Medical Committees – Constituent Survey
We have instigated an organisational stocktake and are seeking feedback from you and your practice teams to better understand your needs and priorities for our services going forwards.
The survey will remain open until 15 August 2025.
All responses will be anonymous unless you choose to actively identify yourself within your free text response/s. Thank you for taking the time to contribute to this survey. A short summary of our role and how we support practices is available if it would assist you in responding.
Londonwide Guidance in focus – GP Support’s guidance on core opening hours
Practices are required to have their doors open during core hours or have a form of alternative access in place if they are not allowing patients into their premises. You can access GP support’s guidance on core opening hours here.
Updated national FAQs on online consultations
Following further discussions with suppliers, NHSE and the profession, the BMA has updated its FAQs on online consultations ahead of the implementation of contractual requirements in October. An updated version of the FAQs is expected in August to reflect ongoing discussions.
This month the LMC/ NCL Londonwide team have been discussing:
GLP1 – Prescribing in Primary Care for Weight Management
As a team we continue to monitor the development of the ICB’s specification for the prescribing of GLP1 drugs for weight loss as a single point of access service across NCL. The funding to provide this service has not been ringfenced so the specification is due to go to the ICB’s Financial Recovery Board on 26 August. Given the timescales of going out to procurement and time needed for a provider to mobilise the ICB are not expecting a service to be up and running before January 2026. Louise Coughlan, Chief Pharmacist, is aware of the pressure practices are facing from patient demand.
The NHS England media campaign and secondary care providers advising patients to go to their GP for the medication is exacerbating the situation. The ICB undertook to raise this again with both NHSE and secondary care. You can find the ICB’s latest statement here, and patient facing information here. If you are continuing to experience difficulties with patients requesting prescriptions for GLP1 drugs for weight loss, please let us know so that we can continue to raise this issue with the ICB (email: joni.wilson-kaye@lmc.org.uk).
Proposal to merge NCL and NWL ICBs
Following NHS England’s requirement for ICBs to cut running costs by 50%, NCL and NWL ICBs have drawn up a proposal to fully merge into a single organisation by 1 April 2026. Further detail about the ICB’s case for change can be found here. The proposals were approved at the respective NCL and NWL ICB Board meetings that took place on 22 and 23 July, and they will now follow a timetable between July and December to work through the approval and due diligence processes needed to form the new organisation.
A programme team will be formed by the two ICBs to plan for the transition of resources. One of the key issues on our radar for NCL will be to monitor financial plans, particularly as the case for change paper states that NCL ICB is £52 million overfunded. The NCL and NWL LMC sector teams will work closely together to monitor the development of the merger and we will keep you informed.
Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs)
LMC members have been attending the neighbourhood events that are taking place in the boroughs during July so please look out for your LMC newsletters for further updates about developments in your local area. The NCL Chairs and Vice Chairs met with Amy Bowen to discuss the ICBs plans for the development of neighbourhoods. The publication of the NHSE’s Ten Year Plan and the focus on moving care out of hospital into the community will impact the development of INTs across the sector. Discussions are taking place on proactive care with a focus on patient outcomes and how this impacts the health of the wider population.
The aim is for INTs to consist of a wide range of organisations including local authorities, with their remit for health and well-being, and the voluntary care sector. As LMCs, our priority is to scrutinise what this means for patients, particularly those with complex multi-morbidities, and to reinforce the message that practices do not have limitless capacity to absorb work from the acute sector which may also be outside of the scope of general practice.
North Central London LMCs Strategic Leadership Network (SLN)
The other topics of focus at the LMC Chairs and Vice-Chairs SLN included:
- ICB plans to transfer functions identified in the NHSE Blueprint to provider organisations.
- Funding arrangements for ARRS staff.
- The impact of the transfer of work from secondary care into general practice.
The Londonwide LMC NCL Sector Team
You can find the details of your LMC Chairs across NCL here. If you have any specific concerns arising about this or any other issue, please contact us via joni.wilson-kaye@lmc.org.uk.
Best wishes,
The NCL Londonwide LMCs team:
Jamie Wright, Director Primary Care,
Vicky Weeks, Medical Director,
Joni Wilson-Kaye, Assistant Director Primary Care – joni.wilson-kaye@lmc.org.uk ,
Sarah Ocran, Committee Liaison Executive – sarah.ocran@lmc.org.uk