This site is intended for health professionals only


Give GPs more time to plan care, say LMC leaders

The focus of commissioning should be ‘turned on its head’ to allow GPs more time to spend with patients and plan care, say LMC leaders.

The report – published by Londonwide LMCs - urges the NHS to prioritise primary care and community services and allow GPs ‘more time to reflect, assess and plan’.

It also calls for community services to be centred around general practice and for better communication with secondary care, with agreement on patient pathways and on the commissioning of services.

The report comes after the LMC conducted the largest ever survey of London GPs, covered exclusively by Pulse last month.

The survey showed the overwhelming majority of GPs believe their daily workload is no longer manageable and that overflow from secondary care - coupled with a ‘box-ticking’ culture of bureaucracy - is contributing to GP burnout.

The new report summarises the demographic and financial pressures facing healthcare in the capital, sets out the need for transforming services and calls for renewed investment in GPs to enable them to ‘rise to the challenge’.

Dr Michelle Drage, CEO of Londonwide LMCs said: ‘We believe that effective change in London will only be achieved by underpinning the role of general practice and strengthening community-based services to support the millions of patient consultations that take place each day and each week in the capital.

‘Strong general practice is both the root of and route to better care for Londoners and requires a paradigm shift  in the way services are commissioned and transformed.’