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WELCOME TO OUR JUNE 2026 NEWSLETTER
This publication is sent to all Essex GP Practices via their Practice Managers. However, we encourage anyone who would like to receive this communication directly, to subscribe below.
Patient List Cleansing Drive
Nearly 350,000 patients have been stripped from GP practices across England in an ‘aggressive’ list-cleaning drive – wiping around £45m from practice funding and forcing staff to spend hours re-registering patients removed inappropriately, GPonline has revealed…
We have noticed a fall in the number of patients registered with an Essex practice recently as figures from January to May 2026 show a reduction of just over 5,800 patients.
The exercise in England has been undertaken by Primary Care Support England (PCSE) on behalf of NHS England. The current programme is part of an ongoing effort to reduce patient list inflation and ensure that:
- GP practices are paid for the patients they are genuinely responsible for.
- Patients remain registered for appropriate screening, vaccination and other NHS services.
- NHS demographic records remain accurate.
PCSE carries out checks on groups that are statistically more likely to contain inaccurate registrations, including:
- Patients aged over 100
- Students registered at an educational address for four or more years
- People who moved to England 12 months earlier (transient registrations)
- Properties reported by Royal Mail as demolished
- Properties with unusually high numbers of registered occupants
- Children recorded as the sole occupier of a property.
Practices may be asked to validate records or PCSE may write directly to patients asking them to confirm or update their address. If a patient cannot be confirmed, an FP69 marker may be applied, which can eventually lead to removal from the practice list unless updated information is received.
Important BMA Updates
The latest BMA update issued on Friday 19 June 2026, includes their ‘focus on’ guidance on the FP69 patient list cleansing issues currently being performed by PCSE, as well as ‘focus on’ guidance on switching off medicines optimisation software.
Also, there is guidance for practices on QOF indicator OB005 as well as a second template letter in an update on Data Sharing Agreements.
GPEC Letter to all Essex GPs
Dr Anna Davey, outgoing Chair of General Practice Essex Collaborative (GPEC) has written an update of where the collaborative is on its journey and the next steps.
Essex Research Conference
Tickets are now available for the inaugural Conference for Essex Health Research (ConfEHR), taking place on:
📅 Thursday 3 September 2026
📍 Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford
DDA Annual Conference 2026
The 2026 Dispensing Doctor's Association conference takes place on Wednesday 30 September to Thursday 1 October 2026, again at the National Conference Centre Birmingham B92 0EJ.
Registration is online
New this year are breakout sessions designed to support daily dispensing tasks. These include: understanding the drug statement, MDS trays, DSQS audit, common drug errors, VAT & PA and using the DM&D browser to support profitability.
This event is free to attend for DDA members.
Practice Manager Supporter Scheme
Support for Practice & PCN Managers in Essex: You’re Not Alone!
The Practice Manager Supporter Scheme (PMSS)
Offering free, confidential support for:
- Practice Managers
- PCN Managers
- Deputy & Assistant Managers
What You’ll Get:
- One-to-one support from experienced managers
- Peer-to-peer Personal Development Reviews (PDRs)
- Guidance tailored to your role
- A safe, confidential space to share
- Advice from people who understand your challenges
Your Supporters
A team of 5 Practice Managers and 1 PCN Manager, actively working across Essex, ready to support you wherever you’re based.
100% Confidential | 100% Free
Everything you share stays between you and your chosen supporter. No judgement. No pressure. Just practical support and encouragement when you need it most.
LMC Portal Update
Thank you to all who have registered so far.
If you have not yet registered, you will find the links below. We kindly ask that you also share these with colleagues and encourage them to register.
Practice/PCN Manager Registration
A brief overview of the portal can be found in this short video: www.Essexlmc.org.uk/online-portal
Emergency referral end point change – ESNEFT
East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust have confirmed the current referral endpoints they have in place on their IT platform (OPERA) as follows with immediate effect:
- Urgent and Emergency referrals, as per the College of Optometrists Guidelines should be sent to: eyereferurgent@esneft.nhs.uk
- Suspect wet AMD referrals should be sent to: esneft.amdreferralcolchester@nhs.net
- Routine referrals and urgent emails should be sent to: esneft.eyedepartmentcolchester@nhs.net
- All email addresses have an acknowledgement that the referrals have landed and therefore if this is received, we wont expect our practitioners to ring to confirm they have been received.
For any queries on any of the referral pathways etc, please in the first instance email the Essex LOC who are the representative organisation for all Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians working in Essex at: Clinical.Lead@Essex-LOC.org but please do also copy in Enquiries@Essex-LOC.org
National Document Repository: Webinar Dates and Links
The Access and Store Digital Patient Documents Service is free to use and has features to help your practice remove the need to manage paper records at registration and deduction.
· Receive and view records sent from another practice
· Zoom into, rotate and free text search records stored in the service
· Store scanned paper Lloyd George records
· Upload electronic health records where GP2GP fails or in scenarios it can't work
· Upload records for patients that have left your practice and need to be made available to a new practice
· Reassign pages in a patient’s scanned paper notes where the wrong patient's information has been included
· View version history of scanned Lloyd George records
· Add and manage staff access restrictions for specific patient records
Full guidance is available here: Help and guidance - NHS England Digital
What this means for you:
· No more printing electronic records to paper
· Spend less time and money on printing
· Faster access to the patient records you need
This is a big step towards simpler, smarter, paperless record management.
Action: As you will start to receive less paper records and more records for review within the service from other practices we recommend you build the Access and Store Digital Patient Documents Service into your records management processes and check it at least once every two weeks.
Join NHS England's Patient Record Management team in June for one of their webinars where they will explain all the features and how to use them:
12pm -1pm 7th July: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/fdde24be-7c48-4885-b387-b29e0a46ca6a@37c354b2-85b0-47f5-b222-07b48d774ee3
12pm - 1pm 30th July: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/bd04e523-a310-45f1-80d3-e43a5081b060@37c354b2-85b0-47f5-b222-07b48d774ee3
Looking for help and guidance on the Access and Store Digital Patient Documents Service? https://digital.nhs.uk/services/access-and-store-digital-patient-documents/help-and-guidance
GP Practice Appointments Data
Our briefing documents synthesises the operational data and patient engagement metrics for General Practice (GP) services across Essex.
The data reveals a high-volume healthcare environment, with total appointments exceeding one million for the month. Key trends include a significant month-on-month increase in both total and GP-specific appointments, as well as a sharp rise in online consultations, which reached an all-time high for the year-long tracking period.
GP Practice Workforce Data
Our workforce data regularly reveals a critical divergence between patient demand and General Practitioner (GP) availability.
While the registered patient list size has seen consistent, significant growth since October 2022 - the primary care workforce is currently experiencing a decline.
Do you need help with PCSE cases?
Have you waited for more than 40 days for a response from PCSE for a case raised with them? Are you experiencing financial hardship as a result? Or, is there a risk to patient safety? If you have answered yes to any of these questions, then the LMC can help you.
Essex LMCs on Social Media
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