LMCs have voted for a motion saying they have no faith that primary care networks will reduce GP workload at their conference in London today.
However, they also voted against a call for the BMA GP Committee to negotiate for networks to be removed from the contract.
At the conference, 63% of leaders said that they ‘have no faith that networks will result in a reduction in GP workload’.
An overwhelming majority said they do not address the issue of a ‘dwindling GP workforce’.
Dr Sujata Chadha from Hillingdon LMC, who proposed the motion, said: ‘We are being shoe-horned into a STP-driven integrated care system, the contract of which is to manipulate primary care networks into delivering quick savings….This neither defends nor supports general practice.’
She added: ‘I do not doubt that this contract was negotiated in good faith and with the best of intentions but it is not working for us.
‘We’re facing increasing financial risks, more unresourced work and this ultimately threatens our sustainability.’
Also speaking in favour of the motion, Dr Simeon Rackham from Derbyshire LMC: ‘In Derbyshire, the introduction of PCNs has removed countless clinicians on the ground giving patient contact – to seemingly chase their tails and drown under paperwork and funding targets, with precious little to show for it.’
19 HILLINGDON: That conference, with regard to PCNs:
i. has no faith that they will result in a reduction in GP workload
ii. is concerned that they do not actually address the issue of the dwindling GP workforce
iii. has not seen any evidence that they will assist practices in supporting increasing numbers of patients with increasingly complex health needs
iv. believes they are the building blocks towards integrated care systems which will be to the detriment of local personal patient care
v. requires GPC England to reject this model in favour of developing a new GP contract that actually positively supports the current model of English general practice.
