Novdec2007

GWENT LOCAL MEDICAL COMMITTEE
LMC Office, 1st Floor, Cwmbran House, Mamhilad Park, Pontypool NP4 0XS
Phone 01495 764455 e-mail - vcgwentlmc@btconnect.com
Office Hours: Tuesday – Friday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. (flexible) answerphone 24 hours.
Chairman Dr David Grant Med Sec Dr Greg Graham Sec Mrs Veronica Crick
LMC BULLETIN
November/December 2007
It’s hard to believe that we are almost at the year end. Many of the issues this year which we have raised have taken a long period to resolve and some are clearly still ongoing, with updates contained in this newsletter where we have been able to do so. Amiodarone The LMC has been
concerned for some considerable time that as this potentially toxic drug is a ‘Amber’ category drug it is not suitable for primary process early in 2008. You will not notice a great change as GPs other than that our Letter headings will change and will show reached the point where the Cardiologists are agreeing to a shared care protocol for but individual members will have the added patients newly initiated on Amiodarone with protection of no longer being liable to the initiation doses prescribed by consultants Competition Law At the LMC Secretaries
Conference last week the Director of BMA Legal Services,Jonathan Waters, provided sent a questionnaire to you as the numbers receiving shared care, and/ or under active follow up in hospital is uncertain. With your practices), decisions by associations of Ciclosporin & Tacrolimus Your
practices which prevent, restrict or distort responses to our enquiries about patients treated with these drugs and whether it is Office of Fair Trading (OFT). LHBs, PCTs in Wales or England has been very useful. and Local Authorities are seen as public For those residing in Wales but attending bodies and so are treated differently. It that their consultants will be presented with a Welsh shared care protocol so that they prices for service provision collectively on behalf of practices if this serves to align those treated in hospitals in Wales. UHW Renal department will be repatriating those issued so that all LMCs are aware of their obligations under competition law and the boundaries within which they can act. As generally relate to services which only a BMALaw and Gwent Local Medical
GP can provide to his patient. Please see Committee Ltd. BMALaw is in the process
term “Shave Biopsy”. In line with this
caveat, “Shave Excision/Shave Biopsy”
is thus defined as:
“A superficially invasive surgical
practitioners undertaking work under the procedure of the skin in which
a) repair is not required
b) the lesion is removed for
doctors set their own fees for work done histological concerns
c) the lesion is from a location where
http://www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/content/Colla removal by other means would cause a
cosmetically unacceptable result (i.e.
GPC South East Wales Election result
from the face of a male or female
Dr Charlotte Jones from Morgannwg is the patient, and the chest of a female
new representative. She hopes to attend a patient)
d) It is usually a single suspicious

Junior Doctors input into BMA Dr
lesion, or very occasionally 2 distinct
suspicious lesions.”
This interpretation applies from 18.10.07. Gwent Out of Hours Service The
profession faced in the MTAS cycle earlier inaccurate and/or illegible CD scripts and have asked that colleagues be as careful redress this further, as you will have noted in the letter of 28th November. We would urge your practice to support the meeting Pathology – New Request Forms A
major upgrade has taken place within the department, and with these new forms you Map of Medicine -The Welsh nephrology
patient pathway is being piloted in Gwent
Reporting Urgent Test results We have
and went live this week. The Trust will be been advised that in some cases it has not been possible for Trust Doctors/staff to December and January as it is intended to monitor it locally before rolling out across urgent test results. We would like to take this opportunity to remind practices that Minor Surgery Definitions Following a
hours, and in the current media climate any breakdowns in the system will not assist “For the purposes of the Minor Surgery
Directed Enhanced Service aspect of
the nGMS contract 2004, the term
“Shave Excision” is identical to the
Radiology reports- We remind you that
Focus on Salaried GPs The GPC have
‘links’, paper results are not being sent recently further revised their guidance on salaried GPs. Salaried/Sessional GPs now Monitored
practices have been advised by their LMCs service, as well as calculating entitlement to maternity pay, sick pay and redundancy position with regard to 7-day prescriptions issued solely for the purpose of supporting salaried GP contract. It is available on the prescribing for clinical reasons. A patient Pandemic Flu & Healthy Behaviour
healthy behaviour with regard to coughs & Waste Collections – the 4-bag rule At a
“coughs & sneezes spread diseases” many years ago. This is on the same lines- using disposable tissues & properly binning generating on average less than 4 bags a We’re still getting bad press about doctors’ hygiene. I’m keeping a box of tissues on practices to a fortnightly collection by STG from 1st January 2008. This is already in cleanser to show the patients that I’m practices will be able to concur with these noticed considerable discrepancies in the similar sizes were generating. This begs
the question about how discerning some of
us are about what is ‘hazardous’. Yellow
bag disposal is much more costly than
municipal refuse collection & more
involved. Uncontaminated waste ought not
to go in yellow bags. LMC would urge you
to ensure that your staff is disposing of
waste wisely.
Health Visitor Review We hope the new
Greg Graham & Veronica Crick
effect. Please let LMC colleagues if you 4.12.2007

Source: http://www.gwentlmc.org.uk/newsletters/pdf/NovDec2007.pdf