This site is intended for health professionals only


Scottish LMC leaders to vote on 15-minute appointments to be included in the contract

GP leaders in Scotland will vote on 15 minute GP appointments and new powers to let practice manage their workload and list size being included in negotiations for the new GMS contract.

A motion to be voted on at the 2015 Scottish LMCs conference this Friday has called for more contractual powers for GPs to control their workload, in particular for non-contractual work to be defined so that GPs can cut unresourced work.

Last year Scottish GPs stepped away from the annually negotiated UK contract, and moved to a three-year contract period that will not change until 2017.

The motion from Glasgow and Ayrshire and Arran LMCs ‘requests that the new Scottish GP contract defines what work is not contractual to allow GP practices to reduce unresourced workload’, and calls for Scottish GPC to ‘negotiate for a move to 15-minute appointments as part of the ongoing contract negotiations’.

It also ‘demands that the new GP contract for 2017 must give GPs and practices adequate mechanisms to manage workload and list sizes without being financially punitive’.

Other motions include whether to negotiate for a separately funded workforce to conduct secondary care work, including phlebotomy, that needs to be completed in the community, and to include recognition and remuneration for time spent on CPD and any work deemed non-contractual in the new contract.

There will also be a motion from Tayside LMC that ‘deplores’ short-sighted public health initiatives such as Detecting Cancer Early, which drive unresourced demand on to GPs.