This north London GP became the youngest negotiator on the BMA GP Committee’s England executive team when she was appointed last summer at the age of 34.
Dr Jameel says it ‘took her breath away’ to know she was one of just a handful of women negotiators in the history of the GPC – and the only one from a BME background.
Playing her part on the team has meant helping to negotiate the annual GMS contract in England. Most imporantly, she is the GPC’s workload lead and has been leading on efforts to stop secondary care dumping workload on GPs.
This year, she negotiated for a change to hospitals’ standard contracts, which gives them a contractual responsibility to write fit notes for patients for the full period of their recovery, respond to issues surrounding their care, and ensure patients have adequate medicine on discharge – all of which they had been dumping on GPs.
This comes on top of changes to ensure hospitals cannot refer patients who do not attend appointments back to their GP, and that they direct patients internally to another department or clinician for a related medical problem rather than send them back to the GP for a fresh referral.
Dr Jameel, who also chair of Camden LMC, is fully aware of the responsibility she has been given: ‘I do not take for granted the trust and confidence placed in me by my colleagues locally and nationally,’ she told Pulse.
Why influential: Fearless negotiator during major contractual reforms for GPs
What others say: ‘Brave, determined female executive breaking glass ceilings at the BMA’
Random fact: Won the under-16 Indian national gold medal for shotput
