It has been a busy week for the General Practitioners Committee, due to the annual LMC Conference held in York on the 22nd and 23rd of May. Here are some of the key news stories to come out of the LMC Conference this week; including the vote against charging patients and the cry for more NHS funding at primary care levels.

GPs vote against charging patients

Hitting the headlines all over the country was the pressing issue of charging patients for GP visits; a matter debated at the LMC Conference on Thursday the 22nd of May. Some delegates proposed that charges between £10 and £25 should be imposed on all those visiting their GP. However, once taken to a vote the answer was clear; patients should not be charged for visiting their doctor. Dr Rob Bailey, from Cambridgeshire spoke against the fees for patients; “Charging will fundamentally change the unique relationship between GPs and patients.” Although the motion was rejected by the representatives there are still many committee members who would like to see this change made in the next few years.

General Practice should be allocated more NHS funding

Going hand in hand with the patient fees debate came the concern for lack of funding in primary care. Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the BMA GP leader, had a lot to say on the shrinking budget for general practitioners and primary care services. Despite dealing with 90% of patient contacts within the NHS, the GP budget is now set at less than 9%. Dr Nagpaul expressed concerns that general practice was becoming “conveyor belt medicine” with some GPs seeing up to 60 patients a day. With the worry that safety and quality are now at risk, nearly all of the delegates at LMC agreed that a larger proportion of the NHS budget should be allocated to general practice.

Other news to come from the LMC conference includes:

• Representatives reject seven-day routine service, from 8am to 8pm due to no evidence that this service is needed.
• A plea is made to the government in order to resolve the current workload crisis, made by delegates who warn “services are in danger of collapsing”.
• CQC inspector asked to apologise for highlighting negative general practice stories, as opposed to the ‘good’ and ‘outstanding’ practice stories.

Come back next week to see the results of Friday’s LMC Conference debates and more of the latest general practice news.