Local Medical Committee Meeting3 March 2015

Local Medical Committee Meeting3 March 2015

MINUTES OF THE COUNTY DURHAM AND DARLINGTON LOCAL MEDICAL COMMITTEE HELD ON TUESDAY 3 MARCH 2015IN THE BOARD ROOM AT APPLETON HOUSE

Present:

James McMichaelChair

David Robertson Hon Secretary

Tanya JohnstonVice Chair - Chester-le-Street

Fiona McConnellChester-le-Street

Richard HarkerDarlington

Rob CowleyDerwentside

Francis WhalleyDurham

Matt HackettDurham Dales

Nari PindoliaDurham Dales

Sanjay GuptaEasington

Rushi MudalagiriEasington

Kamal SidhuEasington

Norbert DielehnerSedgefield

Catherine DoidgeEasington – Practice Manager

Denise ScottEasington – Practice Manager

Heather PrestwichSessional

Robin WadeSessional

Claire ElderLMC

Invited:

Andrea JonesDarlington CCG

Stewart FindlayDDES CCG

Mike LavenderPublic Health

Louise YoungPublic Health

Numbers / Item
L15/16 / Apologies for Absence
Donna Boyd (Durham Dales)
K V Reddy (Easington)
David Graham ND CCG
L15/17 / Minutes of the Meeting held on 3 February 2015–were agreed as an accurate record.
L15/18 / Matters Arising
L15/19 / Public Health Contract
Louise Young and Mike Lavender attended on behalf of Public Health to discuss the changes to the Public Health Contract.
Durham County Council has adopted the national template contract with the following amendments:-
Clause B8.3 payment arrangements reflect Durham County Council’s own arrangements –either weekly or monthly payments.
B10.1 Safeguarding policies do not need to be appended to the contract.
B11 Appendix G “Incidents requiring reporting” not included.
B14 Appendix H “Information provision” not included.
B22.4 Appendix L not included.
B32.1 Notice required to terminate is 3 months (same as previously).
B37 data Protection Clause – Durham County Council has inserted its own version of the clause to clarify that providers have a Data Controller responsibility.
Section C
C7 new clause relating to ownership of equipment–The Council reserve the right to remove equipment that has been specifically purchased for a service they are funding, i.e. exercise bikes have been purchased in connection with Healthchecks, once the contract comes to an end these will be returned to the Council for re-distribution elsewhere. Members felt that this needed to be flagged up when new contracts were being undertaken.
C8 new clause relating to liability for redundancy– the Council will accept no responsibility for staff redundancy.
C9 new clause relating to clawback for understaffing– the Council will clawback monies that have been paid out if there are understaffing issues.
The committee was happy to accept the contract with these amendments.
Healthchecks
47 Practices are now signed up – more work needs to be done for the Derwentside area.
At present payments will be based on the threshold for intervention at 20% risk over 10 yrs.
Non-GP providers are focussing on carrying out healthchecks in businesses, gyms, etc, with the aim of engaging people at lower risk who tend not to attend general practice.
L15/20 / Pharmacy
20.01 Repeat Dispensing Best Practice Workshop
The Committee Agreed to co-hosting this event.
20.02 Minor Ailment Scheme and PharmOutcomes
The Committee did not want to be notified by the Pharmacist every time a medication is dispensed by them under the minor ailments scheme.
L15/21 / NHS England
21.01 Potentially Avoidable Appointments
Deferred to next month’s meeting.
L15/22 / Secondary Care
A further meeting was being arranged with representatives for CDDFT and the LMC.
NP mentioned in the south of the county they had just met with Dr Richard Prescott who was keen to explore how consultants could avoid work being diverted inappropriately to GPs.
Members mentioned admissions issues with regard to not being able to get patients a bed and having to wait ages to speak to the ward. Practice Managers also said they were fed up of emails all day with regard to open and closed status’ of wards.
L15/23 / Area Team
Nil to report this month.
L15/24 / Firearms
Coverer in motions to LMC conference.
L15/25 / PMS Reviews
No final details on practices’ responses to the PMS review were available.
L15/26 / Primary Care Support
L15/27 / Clinical Commissioning Groups
Darlington – Andrea Jones
AJ informed the Committee that Darlington is now Co-Commissioning Level 2 – AJ said she would let the Committee have sight of the revised Constitution.
Sunday clinics have been removed from April – it has been felt that this clinic has had no effect on reduction to A&E.
New Care Models – Darlington has applied to be a vanguard site – there are 260 other applications. The CCG would work closely with the local federation and CDDFT to develop a new model of care.
DDES – Stewart Findlay
DDES is now approved for Co-Commissioning Level 3 along with Sunderland and North Durham. Presently this is being worked with through with NHS England.
Arbitration with CDDFT over the contractual arrangements for 2014-15 has been concluded with both parties prevailing in some aspects of the disputed issues.
SF reported whilst the CCG had not been completely successful nevertheless some key principles had been established that would be helpful to CCGs in the future.
IFR – A unified approach to individual funding requests had been reached in the Northeast with the current exception of Sunderland CCG. If a consistent approach is not adopted then there will be the potential for confusion arising particularly where patients outside Sunderland CCG use City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust.
Career Start –DDES is putting £75k and £150K is being put in from elsewhere to encourage young GPs to come and work in the local area.
Home Equipment Loans – Recommissioned with a new provider in the summer. Residential homes had not previously been part of this contract but will included in the new contract.
Easter bank holiday cover –DDES will not be opening over the Easter Bank Hols as surgeries will be open on Saturdays. Urgent Care will be open and covering over this time.
L15/28 / Out of Hours Issues
28.01 Urgent Care GPs North Durham Response
DAR wrote and received a response with regard to the above. The response was not felt to adequately address worries the LMC had raised with regard to cover.
The Committee was informed that there was no cover on Sunday for certain shifts.
DAR said he would challenge the response.
L15/29 / Communication from the BMA/GPC
29.01 LMC Conference Motions
That conference believes that the current NHS complaints process as it relates to primary care is not fit for purpose
That conference believes that a step for mediation in the complaints process would be helpful for patients and their families and asks the GPC to work with NHS England to revise the current complaints process
That conference calls on the GPC to conduct a review of decisions and findings of the Health Service Ombudsman in relation to GPs
That conference believes that any system for firearms licensing that relies on a pre- or post- grant notification is flawed
That conference recommends the police should be provided with a medical report for all applicants for firearms licenses at the beginning of the licensing process and that if GPs provide such a report they should be paid for doing so
That conference calls on the GPC to campaign for legislative change to allow development of a robust firearms licensing process
That conference calls upon the GPC to work with the RCGP to ensure 'resilience' training is an integral part of the GP training curriculum.
That conference is concerned that the current GP training programme is heavily populated by box ticking exercises and calls on the RCGP to address this immediately by focusing more on the practical and management skills of general practice.
That conference is concerned about the continued disparity in pass rates between International Medical Graduates, British non-white graduates and British white graduates in MRCGP examinations (Membership of Royal College of General Practitioners).
That conference calls upon RCGP and HEE to inform the potential applicants of the disparity in pass rates between International Medical Graduates, British non-white graduates and British white graduates in MRCGP examinations (Membership of Royal College of General Practitioners).
That conference is dismayed about poor workforce planning and calls for urgent action to recruit and retain GPs, especially in deprived areas, due to a real and continuing workforce crisis.
That conference is concerned over the use of the primary care web tool as a tool for performance management by CCGs/Area teams/CQC and other such bodies.
L15/30 / General Correspondence
Nothing to report.
L15/31 / Any Other Business
31.01 New LMC Telephone Number
The LMC will change telephone number in the next month and there may well be a break in communication as the LMC office is being relocated.
31.03 Mental Health
Members were fed-up of TEWV asking practices to perform ECGs, etc.
L15/32 / Date, Time and Place of Next Meeting
14 April 2015 @ 19.30 in the Board Room at ND: CCG Rivergreen, Durham

Private and Confidential

Ref: CNE/MINUTES/AGENDAS/LMC/Minutes 2015