Comms to LLR LMC members from newly appointed Chair, Dr Grant Ingrams
SENT TO MEMBERS ON 27TH SEPTEMBER 2022
Dear Colleagues
I am honoured to have been elected as your new Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland Local Medical Committee Chair.
I would like to thank Dr Nainesh Chotai for all his work and excellent leadership developing an efficient, effective, and streamlined LMC.
Dr Vikram Bolarum has been elected as Treasurer to take over from Dr Hisham Haq, who I would like to thank for his service to the LMC.
Our revised LMC structure allows for a Deputy Chair, and I am delighted to announce that Dr Fahreen Dhanji has agreed to take on this position.
I plan to lead the LMC to build on all the good work that has been done so far, to serve all constituents in LLR to the best of my abilities, and to develop further support for general practices and GPs.
General Practice is in the worst state in my 30 years of experience. Successive governments and Secretaries of State have failed to recognise the situation. They have not taken any positive action whilst we witness a workforce crisis with GPs leaving every day and practices closing. Together with significantly increased demand, vilification by the press, and lack of support by NHS England this has caused a toxic environment for general practices.
The recently published government document ‘Our Plans for Patients’ recognises some of the problems, but the proposed solutions will have minimal or no positive effect and may make the situation worse. The LMC has published its response LLR LMC: PRESS RELEASE: "The Health Secretary has got the right diagnosis but the wrong prescription” says LLRLMC
Although most of the solutions must come from central government and NHS England, there is much we can achieve to help by working together with the local Integrated Care System.
We need to ensure that no unresourced work is transferred from other organisations to general practice, and only then if practices have capacity to take it on. We recognise that other parts of the system are under stress, but less so than general practice. Resourcing should recognise the full cost of providing services, including for the associated additional risk and requirement for supervision.
We need to minimise bureaucracy. No new or revised referral pathways should include additional work for practices. Other bodies need to recognise that GANFYD (Get A Note From Your Doctor) is unacceptable unless they are willing to pay an appropriate fee, and accept that they may need to commission from an alternative provider.
Many practices have provided services pro bono to patients for many years. As capacity becomes tighter and pressure to improve ‘access’ increases, practices should be supported by the ICS either by properly commissioning these services or helping practices to stop providing them. It is not in patients’ best interests for practices not to be able to deliver core services properly or even close due to staff burning out and leaving because they are trying to deliver unresourced non-core services.
Best wishes
Dr. Grant Ingrams
0116 296 2950