BMA launches lease deal template for GPs
The BMA has launched a template lease agreement designed to facilitate local negotiations to reach agreements for premises owned by NHSPS. GP practices that use the template as part of their negotiations between now and 30 November 2017 will see relevant costs incurred, such as stamp duty and a proportion of legal fees, paid for by NHS England. In addition, practices that experience an increase in their service charges as a result of the terms of their new lease can access funding to assist in mitigating the impact of such costs during a transition period while the efficiencies and savings sought by NHSPS (National Health ...
Source: BMA News - May 25, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news

BMA publishes guidance on the impact of EU policy
A guide to the impact of European policy and legislation on the UK’s medical profession has been published by the BMA. The guidance describes the referendum as ‘a momentous issue, the result of which could have huge implications for both the nation and indeed the medical profession’. The document comes one month before the referendum poll and provides clear and impartial facts about the role of EU legislation and directives and their influence on healthcare, including a mutual recognition of professional qualifications that allows UK-trained doctors to work in other member states and enables more than 30,...
Source: BMA News - May 24, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news

Care at risk unless deficit tackled
Patient care is at risk unless the financial crisis facing hospitals in England is addressed, as new figures reveal the total deficit now stands at £2.45bn. The current cumulative deficit exceeds the previously predicted deficit of £2.8bn projected during the middle of the previous financial year by £461 million.  Latest figures released by NHS Improvement show that 157 out of 240 hospital and other NHS trusts in England reported being in deficit by the end of the 2015/16 financial year. Responding to the figures, BMA council chair Mark Porter reiterated the association’s call for Government to...
Source: BMA News - May 23, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news

'We will fight for what the forward view has not tackled'
GP leaders are pushing ministers to roll out their blueprint for general practice, alongside the BMA’s more far-reaching 'urgent prescription'. This was the call from BMA GPs committee chair Chaand Nagpaul on the first day of the local medical committees 2016 conference in London on 18 May. Dr Nagpaul (pictured) told LMC members the General Practice Forward View, released by NHS England last month, offered a 'glimmer of hope' to primary care but was 'not yet a solution' to the ongoing crisis. 'GPs are facing an environment in which it feels we’re being set up to fail,' he added, 'where a workforce that is thou...
Source: BMA News - May 23, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news

General practice needs 'contingency planning'
The NHS must prepare emergency plans to prevent general practice collapsing under sudden surges in workload, a conference of representatives from the profession’s local medical committees has agreed. Such emergency plans should become a legal duty for NHS bodies, according to a motion passed at the LMC 2016 conference on Friday. The motion, proposed by Derby and Derbyshire LMC member Peter Holden (pictured), called for the ‘urgent incorporation of contingency planning for large numbers of patients being left without general practice services at very short notice’. Such plans must be grafted into ‘al...
Source: BMA News - May 23, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news

BMA welcomes new Welsh Government plans
BMA Cymru Wales has welcomed the new Welsh Government’s plan to boost GP numbers and resurrect the failed Public Health (Wales) Bill. Welsh Labour leader Carwyn Jones was re-elected as first minister last week after a ‘one-off’ deal was struck with Plaid Cymru. A previous vote had seen Mr Jones and Plaid leader Leanne Wood tie for the position after Labour failed to win a majority in the Welsh Assembly election. As part of the Compact to Move Wales Forward, a fund will be set up to ‘end the postcode lottery for new drugs and treatments’, and more GPs will be trained and recruited. The first mi...
Source: BMA News - May 20, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news

Ex-BMA president to appear at Hay Festival
Former BMA president Baroness Ilora Finlay will make an appearance at this year’s Hay Festival. Baroness Finlay will share the stage with former Aberavon MP Hywel Francis and poet Gwyneth Lewis. They will discuss how the knowledge of a person’s impending death often prompts people to tell their story through the arts — through writing, painting or recording. The panel will explore how death is viewed in society and how people can help lay down a person’s legacy before they die by listening and sharing stories. Read more about the panel discussion on Friday 27 May   The story so far T...
Source: BMA News - May 20, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news

Seven-day GP services unworkable, conference hears
The Government should abandon its mantra on routine seven-day GP services and put greater investment into emergency weekend cover services instead, a conference has heard. Doctors at yesterday's LMCs (local medical committees) conference said ministers’ current emphasis on seven-day working was unachievable in light of continuing under-resourcing .   Suffolk GP Christopher Browning argued that the drive for routine GP appointments on Saturdays and Sundays was politically driven and contrary to the needs of most patients.   He added: ‘Have you ever tried to see your accountant on a Sunday? A dentist? Y...
Source: BMA News - May 20, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news

GPs may be balloted on industrial action
GPs could be balloted on their willingness to take industrial action after a motion urging the move was backed at a conference of representatives from the profession’s local medical committees. LMC representatives voted in favour of the motion after it was proposed by Tower Hamlets LMC chair Jackie Applebee and backed by BMA GPs committee chair Chaand Nagpaul. The motion proposed that the government blueprint for the future of primary care was not an ‘adequate response’ to the GPC’s statement of need within the BMA’s Urgent Prescription for General Practice. It said the GPC should ask the BM...
Source: BMA News - May 20, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news

Northern Ireland junior doctors committee chair elected
BMA Northern Ireland has announced that Chris Hoo has been elected as BMA Northern Ireland junior doctors committee chair. He will take over from Conan Castles, who served as chair of the NIJDC for three years. Mr Hoo has been a member of NIJDC since September 2013 and joined it with 'a desire to improve training and working conditions for junior doctors'. At present, he works as an ST7 in plastic surgery at the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald, County Down.   Unique challenges Mr Hoo said: ‘I am delighted and grateful to be elected as the new chair of NIJDC. 'I also want to extend my deepest thanks to the outg...
Source: BMA News - May 20, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news

Patients voice concern over GP access
GP leaders in Scotland have warned that urgent action is needed on recruitment and retention following the results of the latest patient survey. The Health and Care Experience Survey 2015/16, published on 17 May, shows that, while patients were overwhelmingly positive about the care and treatment they received, they were less happy about access. Although positive ratings for getting to see a GP remained high (at 71 per cent) and fell just one percentage point compared to the previous year, this marks a 10 per cent fall from the 2009-10 figure of 81 per cent. Alan McDevitt (pictured), chair of the SGPC, said the trend was w...
Source: BMA News - May 19, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news

Emergency measures considered over Scotland's doctor shortage
Health boards in the north of Scotland have been asked to consider invoking measures generally used for major incidents to help cope with medical workforce shortages. The move would involve sharing staff between health boards in an extension of the ‘mutual aid’ arrangements put in place to deal with issues such as a flu pandemic or major traffic accident. The NoSPG (North of Scotland Planning Group), a collaboration of six Scottish health boards, including NHS Grampian, Highland, Tayside and the island boards, has been trying to come up with ways of coping with shortages of doctors. A paper prepared for conside...
Source: BMA News - May 19, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news

BMA agrees junior doctor package
The BMA today reached an agreement with the Government on a new contract for junior doctors in England. More than a week of intensive and constructive talks followed a prolonged dispute, which has seen five periods of industrial action. BMA junior doctors committee chair Johann Malawana (pictured above) said: ‘I believe that what has been agreed today is a good deal for junior doctors and will ensure that they can continue to deliver high-quality care for patients.’ The key improvements for junior doctors are: Recognition of junior doctors’ work and contribution across every day of the week Prope...
Source: BMA News - May 18, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news

Welcome healthcare chief reappointment
The BMA has welcomed the reappointment of Shona Robison as the Scottish cabinet secretary for health, wellbeing and sport. The association said it will bring continuity at a critical time for health services. Ms Robison, SNP MSP for Dundee East, (pictured above, left) served in the same role in the last parliament and has been closely involved in areas such as negotiating a new Scottish GP contract. BMA Scottish council chair Peter Bennie said: ‘I congratulate Shona Robison on her reappointment to the post and look forward to continuing to work with her at this critical time for the health sector in Scotland. &lsquo...
Source: BMA News - May 18, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news

Mixed picture for vanguard programme
Discussions over the impact of models revealed a mixed picture of the vanguard programme during a special BMA event in Newcastle on 11 May.   Sunderland clinical lead and CCG (clinical commissioning group) executive Dr Fadi Khalil spoke about how the MCP (multispecialty community provider) vanguard in his area had taken a three-pronged approach to tackling the pressures facing primary care.   Changes include a recovery-at-home service to help patients recuperate out of hospital, community integrated teams for those with complex needs and an enhanced approach to primary care to encourage and explore further integr...
Source: BMA News - May 17, 2016 Category: UK Health Source Type: news