Minutes of the Meeting of the GP Sub-Committee of Lothian Area Medical Committee held at the David Lloyd Club, Edinburgh on 12 May 2008

 

Dr R J Williams in the Chair

 

The Chairman welcomed Dr Beamond, newly appointed GP Registrar representative, to her first GP Sub-Committee meeting.

 

1          Apologies - Dr Storrie

Absent - Dr Mueller, Prof Weller

 

2          Minutes of the last meeting

The minutes of the meeting of 14 April 2008 were approved and signed by the Chairman.

 

3          Matters arising

 

3.1       SCOT Trial

Clarification has been received that prescription costs will be reimbursed for GPs prescribing non-LJF COX-2s during this trial.  This reimbursement has been endorsed by the DTCs.

 

3.2       Keep Well project

There was no update available on patient specific/identifiable data.  Dr McCallum has agreed to come to Chairman’s Group to discuss confidentiality.

 

3.3       Ethics Committee

Committee members interested in volunteering to sit on this committee were requested to contact the LMC Office.

ACTION: ALL

 

3.4       SMR25A forms

The Drug Users contract previously agreed by LMC mentions SMR24 and SMR25 forms as triggers for payment.  It was agreed that, if a GP provides the service but the SMR25A was completed elsewhere, the GP should receive payment.

 

3.5       Investigations at the interface

The Chairman thanked all those who had sent in anonymised examples.  These have been sent to Dr Simon Mackenzie with a covering letter.  A response is awaited.

 

4          GP Sub-Committee Information Sheet

 

Report from Chairman’s Group

A          Nursing in the Community

Clarification is being sought from Public Health regarding the monitoring of vulnerable children aged 5 to 16.

 

B          Dressings

The issue of GPs being asked to prescribe individual dressings for patients instead of them being obtained from Procurement via stock order forms (GP10A) will be discussed by the Lothian-wide group early June.

 

C         HPV Immunisation

See item 7 below.

Medical Secretary’s Business

§     A request for GPs willing to participate in the 18-week redesign programme for the plastic service in NHS Lothian was received from the Director of Performance Management, LUHD.  Drs Crawford and McNutt volunteered to attend the workshops on 10 and 23 June.

ACTION: EC/AMcN

§     A retiral event for Patricia Cripps, to which all GP Sub-Committee members are invited, has been arranged for Saturday 28 June, 7.30pm at the Radisson SAS Hotel on the Royal Mile.  Members wishing to attend were asked to inform Julie McEwen at LMC Office.

ACTION: ALL

 

Chairman’s Business

§     A request for a GP representative for the urology MCN redesign of prostate screening/services has been received.  Dr Sutherland volunteered to attend these 6-weekly meetings.

ACTION: SS

§     It was agreed to change the date of the June meeting to 16 June (instead of 9 June as previously scheduled)

 

5          Primary Care Joint Management Group Minutes - 10 April 2008

 

5.1       Additional Payment to Practice (item 3.1 on page 2) - It was noted that additional financial support had not been granted to a certain practice to enable delivery of the Childhood Immunisation Programme, as many other practices face the same pressures in terms of their practice nurse compliment.

 

5.2       Alcohol Services (item 10.2 on page 3) - It was noted that £3.4million has been allocated to NHS Lothian for alcohol services.  Preliminary discussions are underway regarding an enhanced service for alcohol.

 

5.3       Premises (item 10.3 on page 3) - Concerns were expressed regarding the proposed allocation of monies to build 2 new practices in the Leith waterfront area, rather than monies being used to extend/improve existing practice premises.  It is expected these new practices will be NHS practices and not private providers.  These monies will not be part of standard GMS funding, a business case will have to be put to the Board to source additional monies.  Dr Shishodia, Committee representative for premises, agreed to raise these concerns at the next meeting.

ACTION: PS

 

6          GMS Core Group Minutes - 14 April 2008

 

The minutes of 14 April GMS Core Group, previously circulated to Committee members for information, were noted.

 

7          Draft GP letter - HPV (cervical cancer vaccine 18-25 year olds)

 

The Committee noted the draft letter from Public Health to GPs in Lothian, previously circulated for information.  National guidance is awaited, although it would appear the new ‘Green Book’ contains good guidance.  Dr Marshall agreed to forward a copy to the LMC Office.

ACTION: DM

8          Pre-op tests

 

See also item 3.5 above.  The issue of inappropriate requests from the Eye Pavilion for pre-op urine screening prior to eye surgery was raised.  The Committee was reminded that “stopping the clock” like this was part of managing waiting lists to ensure the 18-week target is met.  Dr Haigh agreed to write to the Consultant Specialist Nurse, copying the LMC in.

ACTION: SH

 

9          High Dose Antipsychotic Monitoring

 

The issue of GPs being requested to monitor patients on high dose antipsychotics was raised.  The Committee would advise GPs not to undertake such monitoring.

 

10        Data Request

 

A copy of the ‘Repeat Prescribing Waste Project - Data Extraction Proposal’ was circulated with the agenda papers for information.  A number of practices have signed up to this project, but concerns had been expressed that there is a requirement for patient-specific data to be released and handled by non-clinical staff.  The Committee was assured that the proposal had been approved by the Caldicott guardian who had no concerns re patient confidentiality.  It was noted that a similar system has been in place in Tayside for over 10 years.  Dr Marshall requested that a copy of the proposal be forwarded to him at SGPC.  See also item 3.2 above.

ACTION: PLC

Concerns were also expressed regarding the Keep Well project and lack of understanding of data security issues in participating practices.

 

11        Waste Medicines - Patient Information Leaflet

 

A copy of this PIL was circulated to Committee members for comment.  Dr Williams agreed to feed back comments to Dervilla Bray.

ACTION: RJW

 

12        AOCB

 

12.1     Pathology pots

 

It was noted that certain practices were having problems obtaining supplies of pathology pots for samples.  Dr Shishodia agreed to take this issue up.

ACTION: PS

 

13        Date of next meeting - Monday 16 June 2008, 7.30pm at the Holiday Inn, Edinburgh

                                                   [Please note change of date of this meeting]