Dr Jackie Applebee was elected to chair Tower Hamlets LMC at a difficult time, but has made huge progress on a national level this year.
She is one of two east London GPs on the Power 50 list, included for their impressive campaigning to ensure the survival of general practice in what is one of the most deprived areas of the country.
And she is also stiffening the resolve of the BMA. The ‘Save our Surgeries’ campaign may go national after a decisive vote at the BMA’s annual conference called on the union to fund it – against the wishes of BMA chair Dr Mark Porter.
Dr Appleby cites this as one of her highlights of the year, saying: ‘This is fantastic as it means we can now take our experience and enthusiasm from campaigning for general practice in east London out around the UK, hopefully giving confidence to surgeries and their patients everywhere to campaign as we have.’
She says she submitted a paper to BMA Council in July that has been adopted and she has subsequently been invited to join a working party to take this forward.
Dr Appleby was also elected one of the two Unite Medical Practitioners union reps on the GPC in July 2014 and she also proposed a motion at the ARM opposing the purchaser/provider split in the NHS, which was passed overwhelmingly
‘I still love day-to-day general practice and manage to keep a focus on patient interactions despite all the distractions,’ she adds.
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