Local Medical Committee Meeting5 April 2016

MINUTES OF THE COUNTY DURHAM AND DARLINGTON LOCAL MEDICAL COMMITTEE HELD ON TUESDAY 5 APRIL 2016IN THE BOARD ROOM AT APPLETON HOUSE

Present:

Tanya JohnstonChair

David Robertson Hon Secretary

Fiona McConnellChester-le-Street

Richard HarkerDarlington

Caren PurvisDerwentside – Practice Manager

Niamh TelfordDurham

Francis WhalleyDurham

Matt HackettDurham Dales

Heather PrestwichSessional

Claire ElderLMC

Invited:

Anne SewellGP Choices

Robin WadeGP Choices

Number / Item
L16/30 / Apologies for Absence
Norbert Dielehner (Sedgefield)
Rajiv Mansingh (Easington)
James McMichael (CLS)
Kamal Sidhu (Easington)
L16/31 / Election of Chairman
Tanya Johnston was put forward by Fiona McConnell & Francis Whalley. TJ would accept the role on a temporary basis after discussing the matter with her Practice.
L16/32 / Election of Vice – Chairman
There was suggestion of James McMichael – the matter would be discussed with him at a later date. The Committee expressed their sincerest gratitude to Dr McMichael for his years of service as the Committees Chair.
L16/33 / Welcome to New Members
Rajiv Mansingh– The Committee welcomed the newest Committee member and would do so in person when he attended the next meeting.
L16/34 / Co-options to the Committee
The Committee agreed once again to co-opt Caren Purvis, Practice Manager to the Committee.
L16/35 / Finance
35.01 To re-confirm Barclays as Bankers to the Committee
35.02 To re-confirm RMT as Accountants to the Committee
Both items were confirmed.
L16/36 / Minutes of the Meeting held on 1 March 2016 – were agreed as an accurate record.
L16/37 / Matters Arising
Solutions for Health -
L16/38 / GP Choices
Anne Sewell, GP Choices Manager and Dr Robin Wade attended the LMC to request the continued support of the LMC now that there had been changes made to the service and Carol Hartman-Andersen had retired and there would be further staff changes.
County Durham & Darlington were still very fortunate to have a service like GP Choices which covered:-

Occupational Health
Support Services
Maintaining Practitioner Health

There would be further developments within 2016/17:-

Recruitment of a Band 5 Occ Health Nurse for 30 hours per week (1 year contract)
Recruitment of a Band 5 Senior Admin for 30 hours per week (1 year contract)
An external facing website
Continued accreditation via SEQOHS
Improved training and development with GP Practices in the region.
Planning to go paper light.

NHS England has developments for improving GPs access to Mental Health Support – though this has not been defined and has no confirmed start date and would not include all the services presently undertaken by GP Choices.
GP Choices is supplying a poster for Practices to display in their surgeries.
The Committee unreservedly gave their support to GP Choices.
L16/39 / Clinical Commissioning Groups
Joseph Chandy attended and discussed both DDES and ND CCG.
DDES
Practices having more control.
Winter Issues – issues still not resolved.
NEAS – expressing concerns that GPs need to priorities their calls. Members wanted to know exactly what this meant as most practices had systems for prioritising such calls. Members had suspicions that this had more to do with out of hours than in hours times. JC said he would take the matter back to SF and request clarity.
Out of Hours (Easington) – meeting with SF organised but then cancelled.
Out of Hours (Change to services) – 3 choices have gone out to public consultation – members raised concerns as they felt the document was extremely confusing and unclear. JC explained the choices
There was a considerable amount of discussion around changes to services in the near future involving A&E and minor injuries.
Annual Health Check – Learning Disabilities –There was concern about this audit and how this information would be used or even extracted.
ND CCG
JC confirmed that he had been in post at ND for 2 days and had already attended a meeting with the Federations about Community Matrons. Members expressed concerns with regard to this matter and the very tight timeframe for the meeting (especially over a bank holiday weekend). Members from ND did not know how this matter would work out – advice given from members from south of the county felt that if they should take on this scheme that they make sure management costs were factored in (this service had been de-commissioned in the South). Members felt they were being pushed into running a service by the CCG when they didn’t want to move forward with this matter.
Mike Brierly has become one of the Directors at ND:CCG – Mike comes from NECS.
L16/40 / Local Authority
Nothing to report.
L16/41 / Secondary Care
There would be an invitation put out to CDDFT directors to attend next month.
L16/42 / Out of Hours Issues
Members continued to express grave concerns over shifts not being filled.
One member had experience a significant event over the Bank Holiday weekend which was presently being investigated (death of a patient).
The LMC was at a loss as to how to further this matter – concern had been raised with both the Trust and the CCG.
The Committee was informed that at 9 am this morning 6 shifts were still not filled
L16/43 / Communication from the BMA/GPC
43.01 New Guidance – Diagnostic Tests
DAR agreed to read and understand it before disseminating to Practices.
43.02 Roadshow
TJ confirmed that she had attended the Roadshow where Richard Vautrey was the Speaker.
His main topics were:-

Workload
Stabilising
Management
Underfunding
QoF
Admissions & Avoidance Schemes
New models of care
Access Survey – every 6 months!

L16/44 / General Correspondence
Nothing to report.
L16/45 / Any Other Business
45.01 NHS England - Survey
CP said Practices were receiving a survey to fill in again this year, but this time they wished to receive information about Practice Staff’s sick leave. Many Practice Managers were uncomfortable sharing this confidential information and wondered if this had to be shared. DAR confirmed he would look into this matter. CP to email DAR.
45.02 Anti-coagulation
Francis Whalley raised an issue with regard to an anti-coagulation service that his practice runs. A neighbouring organisation had recently stopped providing the same service. FW’s practice was not provided with sufficient information about this in a timely manner and yet was potentially expected to expand its service at short notice. FW felt that other practices involve in AQP contracts should be aware of this issue.
L16/46 / Date, Time and Place of Next Meeting
3 May 2016 @ 19.30 in the Board Room at ND CCG Rivergreen, Durham

Private and Confidential

Ref: CNE/MINUTES/AGENDAS/LMC/Minutes 2015/LMC Minutes 5 APRIL 2016