text: After looking around for a new current account I decided on the KBC Extra current account. If you lodge €2,500 per month you get fee-free banking. The balance can change throughout the money so I will set up a standing order from my savings account into KBC and back out again the next day to get over that requirement. I have had a student current account with them in the past – I signed up to get a €100 One4All voucher for free but never used the account. I closed it a while back. One thing I do is I try to actively avoid companies that annoy me with advertising – Aer Lingus’s ‘Aer Bridge’, NoNonsense, The Tesco ‘Here’s to the Hosts’ and KBC ‘I live a modern sort of life‘. However, I decided I’d give KBC another go and am already beginning to regret it.
  As I already had an account with KBC I was unable to sign up again online instead I needed to call them. I called them and they took all my details over the phone and advised I would need to resend in copies of my documents and he would immediately email me a list of documents that were required. About four hours later I received two emails both with a different list of documents and both with a different email address to send them to. To be on the safe side I sent the different lists of documents to each of the email addresses with a note referencing the other email.
  3 working days after sending in the documents I received a response saying ‘Perfect’. That was it, a one word response. Presuming that meant everything was in order I waited for the MasterCard to arrive which is duly did followed by the PIN for the card. However, I then received a call from KBC saying my account wasn’t fully active and not to send money across to it as it might get ‘stuck’. There was an issue with my address. My two proof of addresses didn’t match. Both addresses were in the format of:
  However the towns were different. They are neighbouring towns and I live right on the border. Depending on who you ask the town is different in fact AIB, An Post and ESB all have me in three different towns. I’ve always used these documents as the proof of address but apparently it wasn’t good enough for KBC even though the house name and street matched, so I had to go find another proof of address for them.
  Then two days later I got another call saying they never received a copy of my signature. I checked my email and I had attached it but the agent was adamant I hadn’t. So I resent that in. I was advised I would only hear back if there was an issue but I asked them to confirm once they receive the email. A week later and I have heard nothing. I have received three letters to date the PIN for my MasterCard, my MasterCard and a welcome pack containing and incorrect brochure and my account details.
  This brochure sums up everything I dislike so far with KBC. Its all style and no substance. Firstly the fact its printed on ‘fancy” A4 paper and manages to 12 pages is quite remarkable. There is very little information in the brochure and a lot of it is wrong.
  “The KBC Day to Day Debit Card is liable to Annual Government Stamp Duty of €2.50 where the card is only used for ATM or Point of Sale (POS) only, or €5.00 when the card is used for both ATM and POS.”
  “If you maintain a minimum daily credit balance of €2,000 in your current account you won’t have to pay for ATM or cheque processing fees” In fact the whole Fees Explained appears to be for their standard current account not extra current account which I signed up for. There is no mention of the extra current account anywhere in this brochure. I did think maybe I signed up to the wrong account but the welcome letter that arrived with this brochure confirms I signed up to a extra current account.
  There is a 5 question survey they would like me to fill out in the coming weeks. No problem, I’m happy to do it however it doesn’t actually say where to send the survey. I would have guessed it would be to their head office on Sandwith St but then the next page says ‘Where we are’ and lists all their hubs. Maybe I’m suppose to send it to my closest hub?
  Overall these are small things and nothing disastrous but combined they give the impression of a bank that doesn’t really know what its doing – loosing documents, incorrect information, unnecessary delays. If a bank can’t even give clear straightforward information about a current account I wouldn’t have much trust in them for more complex financial products. I’m still waiting for my online banking details and will use KBC for a month or two alongside N26 and then decide which one to drop.
  I am sorry to fill your inbox with another email but I thought that there were quite a few things happening despite entering the holiday season and therefore I thought it was worth sharing this information with you.
  There is no doubt that we have gone through some very difficult times recently and as a result it has become a major challenge to recruit new GPs and retain the older ones. If you look back at my email updates over the last couple of years this has been a common theme.
  The 64 million dollar question is, what needs to happen to change the fortunes of the most important part of the NHS?
  A recognition that the workload has reach a point that makes the job of a GP unsustainable and action taken to address this.
  The resources needed to support general practice as a % of the NHS budget has fallen to about 7% and needs to be increased to more than 10%.
  The model of general practice is not broken, the personal care based around a registered list is as important today as it was in the past but the model needs to transform so that practices are at the centre of the delivery of patient care with other services available to support GPs as part of a wider team, hence the need for general practice to lead the community based care.
  The system of funding care does not incentivise the integrated provision of care, it does the opposite and this needs to change to look at the needs of individuals as well as populations.
  Resources need to be invested where they have most impact even if that means a care pathway is delivered by more than one provider.
  Remember the phrase "high trust, low bureaucracy", we seem to operate in a system that has more red tape and micromanagement than ever, this needs to stop and allow organisations to concentrate on delivering care to their patients.
  I am still working as a partner in a practice that I joined nearly 30 years ago, I can honestly say that I still think general practice is a fantastic care and if I had my time again I would make exactly the same career choice. We all know what the problems are, lets work together to deliver a better future, after all, those of us who are closer to the end of our careers will need the next generation to look after us in the future - so we all have a vested interest in the future of British general practice.
  This week NHS England have launched some of their action that has been taken following their early commitments that were detailed in the GPFV. Including funding for the GP resilience programme, meeting the costs of GP Indemnity and the GP development support programme.
  There is an event in September in Southampton where the national team from NHS England are going to present the progress that has been made in terms of implementing the GPFV and the plans for the future.
  Unfortunately the places are now full, there are places still available in other areas such as London and Bristol. After the events the LMC will send a summary to all in Wessex.
  This programme will invest £40m over the next 4 years with £16m being available this year. The aim is to support practices who are struggling and need help. This is in addition to the "Vulnerable Practice Scheme" that was announced last year.
  Support will be provided from a menu of options based on the needs of the practice, and will include local resilience teams or pools of experienced GPs and other practice staff to help with practice management, recruitment issues and capacity.
  The rising costs of Indemnity is one of the reasons that the workforce in general practice is being depleted - recrutment and retention is a key issue. This year additional funding was included in the global sum to cover the increases.
  A new GP indemnity support scheme has been announced by NHS England, will start in 2017-18 and provide a special payment to practices, linked to workload, to offset average indemnity inflation. The scheme will initially run for two years, when it will be reviewed. The first payment, which will be separate from standard contract payments, will be made in April 2017.
  The LMC often gets complaints from GPs that a patient has failed to attend an OPD and so the hospital passes the responsibility for follow up back to the GP, or please could the GP refer the patient to another consultant because the hospital are unable to do this, or please could you inform your patient of the investigation that the hospital has undertaken and even worse please could the GP chase up the test and then inform the patient, or OPD letters and discharge summaries arriving 4-6 weeks after the appointment.
  Recently the NHS Contract has changed and now there is a requirement on the hospital to change traditional behaviours. The following changes have been included in this years contract:
  Stopping hospitals adopting blanket policies under which patients who do not attend an outpatient clinic appointment are automatically discharged back to their GP for re-referral (this wastes an estimated 15 million GP appointments per year).
  Enabling hospital onward referral to and treatment by another professional within the same provider for a related condition, without the need to refer back to the GP.
  A requirement for hospitals to notify patients of the results of clinical investigations and treatments in an appropriate and cost-effective manner; for example, telephoning the patient. Therefore GPs should not be inappropriately used to relay to patients results of tests generated by hospital clinicians.
  Timely clinic letters to GP practices, no later than 14 days after the appointment, and with the hope of electronic transmission within 24 hours in the future.
  The GPC has written to all CCGs and the LMC has written to all local hospitals and CCGs to ensure these requirements have been implemented. We hope this will help to reduce the unnecessary work that is frequently "dumped" on general practice.
  However, it is clear that despite these contractual changes, GP practices have continued to be burdened by the above bureaucracy, with many CCGs and hospital trusts seemingly unaware of these new requirements.
  As result, the GPC requested that NHS England should write to all CCGs and hospital providers, making these responsibilities clear. NHS England have now written to all CCGs and trusts. This letter should be used as a basis for practices to demand the above requirements, and to notify their LMC where providers breach these contractual terms. You can use the GPC's template letters in Quality First to reject such inappropriate transferred work. There are template letters for TPP and EMIS.
  As I indicated in my recent email this framework has now been published. This would allow groups of practices working together and with other partners to hold a budget based on a population to deliver care in a more integrated way.
  Following the announcement at the Conservative Party Conference last year that there would be a new deal for general practice there has been much speculation about what this would include and how much freedom it would give practices.
  I sit on the national advisory committee for the New Voluntary MCP Contract and Hampshire is one of the six pilot sites. I can assure you that those practices who want to retain their GMS or PMS contract will be able to do so. For some, as has happened in Gosport, moving to an employed model where this is in the best interests of the practice, the option will also be available.
  The RCGP has launched TWO cancer toolkits to assist GPs in the effective prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer throughout primary care.
  (http://www.rcgp.org.uk/clinical-and-research/toolkits/primary-care-cancer-toolkit.aspx) provides a collection of key evidence-based resources and guidance relating to cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment relevant to the primary care setting. The Primary Care Cancer toolkit also contains up-to-date cancer information for patients and carers which you may wish to share with your patients.
  In a recent email I was able to give some good news about improved outcomes in cancer. Wessex was the best strategic clinical network (SCN) for early diagnosis and did particularly well for the early diagnosis of colorectal, breast and prostate cancers.
  GPC has been made aware that telephone systems used by practices may be vulnerable to fraudsters hacking into them and making premium rate calls. In one instance £2500 - £5000 of calls were placed over one weekend.
  This is known as PBX/dial-through fraud, which occurs when hackers target Private Branch Exchanges (PBX) from the outside and use them to make a high volume of calls to premium rate or overseas numbers.
  The victims are usually small to medium-sized businesses, but the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau has also noticed that a number of schools, charities and medical/dental practices being targeted where fraudsters are taking advantage of flaws in security systems.
  This type of fraud is most likely to occur when organisations are most vulnerable i.e. during times when businesses are closed but their telephone systems are not, for example in the early hours of the morning or over a weekend or public holiday.
  There are commercial organisations that will install software to prevent this and practices should consider whether this is a cost effective solution. However, a simpler alternative might be to place a block on international calls with the telephone system supplier.
  This raises an issue of where, for example, a patient is hospitalised abroad and clinician to clinician communication is required, but the advice of GPC would be to ensure that an alternative mechanism for making and receiving such a call was in place, such as the mobile of one of the practice staff. Any cost to the individual could then be reimbursed.
  Email sent by Wessex LMCs, on 28th July 2016 The summer has finally arrived, the world of general practice used to go through a quieter...
  General practice is facing some of the toughest challenges in my experience of almost 30 years as a GP. The workload is rising, more...
  The review, announced in February, will look at how the partnership model needs to evolve to meet the needs of a modern NHS. The GP...
  After the poor response to the 'new deal' for the profession, the Prime Minister has sought to re-set his relationship with GPs by...
  Email sent by Wessex LMCs, on Wednesday, 3 Dec 2014 What a great couple of weeks we have had in general practice! There was the Daily...