NWL LMCs newsletter – February 2026

Dear colleague,

Wishing you a happy new year. We hope you find the following update on the work of your NWL LMC team helpful, which you should receive in addition to your local LMC newsletter and the monthly Londonwide LMCs newsletter. The start of the year has been busy with negotiating the terms of the NWL single offer, working to improve the interface with secondary care and community providers and getting to grips with new ways of working as NWL ICB transitions to the new 13 borough West and North London ICB.

Collaboration, communication and co-operation will be key in navigating the new landscape ahead and we will be working with our borough LMCs to reach out to as many of you as possible to ensure that we are effectively communicating the work we do on your behalf. We are also keen to ensure that we are representative of the communities we serve through effective communication between constituents and their LMCs.

You can find the details of your borough LMC members and Londonwide LMC team as well as contact details for each area on the LMC website. We will continue to strive to make sure your voice is heard and amplified in the new system despite significant losses of local commissioning support and clinical leadership. We would welcome your views and feedback on any areas of concern so please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Dr Hannah Theodorou and Dr Asiya Yunus, Medical Directors for NWL, Londonwide LMCs
Jamie Wright, Director Primary Care, Londonwide LMCs

London General Practice Award Winners

We hosted our second London General Practice Awards in Parliament on February 5 2026, recognising the dedication and enterprise of our hard-working GPs and practice teams across the Capital.

The awards were sponsored by Londonwide LMCs Buying Group insurance provider MIAB.

We want to wish particular congratulations to the following award winners from NWL:

Dr Mark Mikhail – LMC Member Award NWL: for demonstrating outstanding commitment to safe sustainable care and the future of General Practice. Mark has been an LMC member in Ealing for many years, as well as a CD and has tirelessly worked to represent your views in local forums as well as at NWL level. Mark is pictured receiving his award from Dr Lisa Harrod-Rothwell, CEO, Londonwide LMCs and Montrose Bill, from awards sponsors MIAB.

Holly Road Medical Centre in Hounslow – London General Practice Non-Clinical Team Award: for outstanding contribution to patient care and practice team collaboration, and London General Practice Safety Award – recognising a group or individual’s contributions to safe general practice services.

Dr Genevieve Small – London General Practice Commissioner Award: recognising effective engagement, collaborative working, partnership, and support for general practice in the Capital.

Full list of winners and event photos

Commissioning and enhanced services

Local enhanced services 25/26
Access Service: The LMC is aware of the impact the payment mechanism (weighted list size) has on the audit requirements for the specification (2% of registered list size), causing an inequity in the work undertaken to what is currently renumerated. LMC representatives will reflect this back to ICB colleagues at Enhanced Services meetings.
Warfarin Tariff: The LMC has shared evidence with the ICB regarding the financial losses networks and practices have incurred as a result of delivering this service. The ICB has accepted the LMC evidence that this is not viable across all boroughs and discussions continue re solutions.
Diabetes Level 1 enhanced service 25/26: the LMC has raised concerns regarding the achievability of HbA1c targets in newly diagnosed diabetic patients. The ICB has acknowledged that the outcome target has been set too high for practices to achieve payment for 25/26 and are currently reviewing this for a proposed in year adjustment.

26/27 service development

• CRM (Cardio, Renal and Metabolic): Thanks to feedback from LMC members and CDs, the LMC has sent in responses to the initial draft specification regarding achievability of targets, payments, workload, workforce and training requirements. We have held a number of constructive meetings with ICB leads to discuss these issues in depth and payment thresholds have been reduced where necessary, although some of this is dependent on the outcome of the NWL business case to determine the final funding available. It is important that while practices may wish to focus on preventative medicine to minimise adverse health in patients at risk of CRM complications, that outcomes are achievable and do not create excessive amounts of additional workload for practices at a time of great demand.
• Access: the ICB has sent through a draft Access Specification and we have sent through feedback from LMC members and CDs, which is under discussion. Through the Enhanced Services Task and Finish Group LMC representatives have already requested amendments to proposals including;
  • A reduction in PCN patient engagement events.
  • Revised targets for NHSApp registrations.
  • Removal of the proposal to repurpose unutilised practice NHS 111 slots for UTC use.

We will keep practices updated on the outcomes of these discussions.

Interface issues

Primary-secondary care interface:
LMC members and the Londonwide team have been working with the ICB to try and ensure that NWL trusts are working to standards expected of them in the national contract, particularly on key areas such as clear points of contact for patients and clinicians, complete episodes of care including discharging patients with Fit notes and adequate medication.

• Clear points of contact on correspondence: at the LMC’s request, the ICB is currently auditing trust paperwork through practices to identify whether departments are providing clear points of contact .
• NWL Trust website contact directories: the LMC has been working with representatives from the Acute Provider Collaborative to ensure all NWL Trust websites include contact points for patient queries and concerns as well as directories for GP surgeries for any queries related to clinical care. The current NWL ICB website is hosting the LNWH e-RS directory of services for GPs here (requires password access).
• Fit Notes and Electronic Prescribing: there are ongoing issues with the lack of electronic fit notes due to system limitations (Cerner), and while electronic prescribing is planned for April, its implementation remains uncertain. The LMC is pursuing this with leads and has requested paper Fit Notes are issued by departments in the interim.

Dr Kyla Cranmer (Chair, H&F LMC) and Dr Chaand Nagpaul (Chair, Harrow LMC) represent NWL practices at the ICB oversight meetings; these will discontinue from April but we will continue to ensure that your views and concerns are reflected, acknowledged and responded to as we transition to a new system and ways of working. Details of your borough LMC representative attending local interface meetings are available in local newsletters. If you have any issues you would like to escalate please send these to your local representative or contact Ian or Amy from the Londonwide team (contact details below).

Primary-community care interface:

• The LMC understands that many practices are experiencing challenges with ensuring that patients are receiving the right care in the community, leading to many patients falling through the gaps or practices having to pick up unreasonable workload. Community nursing workforce shortages and unclear definitions of housebound patients are leading to the rejection of referrals and patients being left without a service. The LMC is highlighting commissioning gaps and care failings at the relevant forums and will be drawing up standards to help clarify responsibilities. Please escalate any concerns to your borough LMC so these can be picked up with the relevant provider.
• Eating disorder pathway: the LMC has raised the need for a clear commissioned pathway for investigations and management of eating disorders, particularly for children. Please share with Dr Kyla Cranmer via Ian Oakley (contact details below) any items you would like raised by the LMC on this pathway.

Radiology Improvement Forum
A new Radiology Improvement Forum has been set up with representation from each borough LMC to act as a working group across diagnostic radiology, Primary Care, Community Care and Secondary Care looking at systems and processes, quality and pathway improvement. Please share any issues related to radiology you would like to raise with ian.oakley@lmc.org.uk (for Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, Hounslow, Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster LMC leads) or amy.honor@lmc.org.uk (for Brent, Harrow and Hillingdon LMC leads) so that these can be raised. We will update you on any relevant outcomes.

Guidance and updates

GP Connect – practice actions to ensure contract compliance for users of SystmOne (From NHSE Primary Care Update)
While most GP practices have self-declared contractual compliance, system supplier data does not fully support this position. Practices running TPP SystmOne should check that Structured Records Access configuration includes the remainder of the patient record. This may appear as:

“Enable Access Structured Record Provider: Immunisations, Consultations, Problems, investigations, Outbound referrals, Diary entries (Recalls), Uncategorised data”.

To comply with the contract, practices must enable Update Record functionality and should follow system supplier guidance to implement correctly. NHS England has published frequently asked questions to help practice teams. Please contact the system suppliers’ helpdesk with any questions on configuring GP Connect correctly (or contact NWL ICB for support).

Tips for GPs to reduce SMS Messaging
Encourage your patients:

• To download the NHS app and switch push notifications on – batch messages will then default to the patient’s NHS app rather than SMS as suppliers become integrated.
• To manage their e-RS referrals directly from the NHS App, saving a message with booking or appointment details.
• To request their medications via the App; they will also be able to see when they have been issued, saving any calls or messages informing them.
• You can find further resources at the NHS App Campaign Resource Centre.

For patients who prefer not to use the NHS app:

• Advise patients to provide an email address if you don’t have one on file: sending via email is free and may be preferred for sending attachments.

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!

Access deals

The Londonwide LMC NWL sector team

You can find the details of your LMC Chairs across NWL here.