GP Partner in Barnsley
Barnsley LMC Medical Secretary
GPC Representative for South Yorkshire
(Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield)
Dear Colleagues,
As we come out of the pandemic it is more important than ever that the voices of GPs are heard at
National level, and as your representative on GPC I am committed to ensuring that happens.
GPC England met on 19 th May 2022, face to face for the first time since I was elected. It was valuable to have the opportunity to have both formal and informal conversations with other representatives and the Executive Team of GPCE, Farah Jameel, Richard Van Mellaerts and Kieran Sharrock. The format of the meeting involved time for discussion about the committee’s vision for the Future of General Practice.
Many of you have raised concerns about the effectiveness of the committee, something which has not been helped by remote meetings. However, discussions are clearly focused on the issue that matter to you, and reflective of the range of views that I hear across south Yorkshire. In particular, that there is some support for PCNs but their effectiveness and ability to improve workload for practices varies considerably. I continue to raise your concerns about lack of Estates Funding, lack of support for training and supervision of ARRS roles. IIF schemes being overly complicated with too many small ‘pots’ of money. A motion also came to GPC around the Independent Contractor status, I voted to confirm the committee’s support of the Independent Contractor Model. A further part of the motion asked us to consider a separate committee for ICs, after a rich debate I voted against this. As a representative for all GPs in South Yorkshire, I frequently hear from Salaried colleagues that they valve the IC model too and recognise that careers are not static with GPs moving between partner, salaried and portfolio roles, and as such feel we are best served with a United committee representing all GPs.
As many of you are aware the work undertaken by GPC is often confidential and by the time an embargo has been lifted on information it has usually been reported by news outlets or communicated to you via BMA newsletters. However, GPCE is continuing to negotiate on your behalf raising the issues above and negotiating on specific problems, such as the problems with Immunisation payments. At the last GPCE meeting I stood and was accepted as National Policy Lead for Providers and Commissioners, Working at Scale. This will give further opportunity to be involved with representing your views and negotiations with NHSE/I. In South Yorkshire, I have been involved in a project to form the Association of South Yorkshire LMCs together, this brings together the 4 LMCs to collaborate on issues across the region. Importantly it also allows me, and future GPC Representatives a valuable opportunity to regularly meet with LMC colleagues from across the region. I welcome your Feedback, questions and comments, please feel free to contact me by email, clare.bannon@nhs.net.
