North & South Essex Local Medical Committees 

Welcome to the November 2021 edition of our e-newsletter. This publication is sent to all Essex GP Practices via their Practice Managers.  However, we encourage anyone who would like to receive this email directly, to subscribe below. 

Parliamentary HSCC

The Future Of General Practice

The Health and Social Care Committee, chaired by former Secretary of State (SoS) Jeremy Hunt, is asking for evidence to inform its recently announced enquiry into the future of general practice. Essex LMC's has released a statement and seeks your views on the report by no later than 23 December 2021.

New! Practice Manager Supporter Scheme

North & South Essex LMCs are delighted to offer support to Practice Managers through our new Essex Practice Manager Supporter Scheme.

Practice Manager Supporters can provide ad hoc advice and support for their practice manager colleagues. New, experienced and assistant practice managers can submit support requests via our new online platform. Support can be offered in person, virtually or on the telephone.

It is important to note that the supporters are not able to offer any legal advice but can signpost their colleagues towards useful resources and assistance.

Get started by clicking on the link below and you may choose to contact any of the 5 supporters regardless of whether they are from your CCG area or not. Follow the steps online to submit your support request and your supporter will be in touch.

Further information can also be found on the Practice Managers page on the LMC website

Election Timetable

LMC representatives hold office for four years and a number of constituencies are due for election in March 2022. The LMC will invite nominations from early February 2022 and an e-mail will be sent to each GP for whom an address has been provided.

Primary Care Careers - Flexible Workforce Platform - LocumDeck - a fully funded initiative to support Essex Locum GPs

Primary Care Careers has secured a fully funded initiative working in partnership with NASGP which focusses on the Locum GP workforce, providing both a booking platform and wrap round care.  This initiative has been fully funded for two years so there is no cost to either the Locums or the Practices using it.   

Firearms Licences

The LMC has been advised by Essex Police that they are currently preparing their workload for next year.  Please click below for an update on Firearms Licence renewals for 2022.

Interpreting & Translation Services - Reminder

Further to our introduction to this service in last month's newsletter, it appears that there has been confusion in which provider is providing which service. For clarification on this and for details of how to book on to sessions coming up, please click below...

Cameron Fund Christmas 2021 Appeal

The Cameron Fund’s aim is to help GPs get back to work (or continue with their GP Training) as soon as they are able, following a period of time where a colleague is struggling to work with their own personal crisis and/or has been unable to work. The support provided is tailored to an individual applicant’s needs and in line with their plans. The organisation have now put out their appeal for Christmas 2021.

Access to Records

We have received the following update from the GPC on the status of the “Access to Records” programme. 

'Following a recent letter from GPC to NHSX highlighting their concerns about the programme launch for December 2021, GPC have been officially notified that the programme has been paused till April 2022. GPC will now be working with an expert panel and NHSX to look at the entire programme in detail to ensure its safety and workload implications on general practice.'