Small team. Big ambition. We don't stand still – we step up when strong leadership for General Practice matters.
The challenge we identified
The impact of the NHS 10 Year Plan issued in 2025 along with the imposed contract changes upon the General Medical Services contract in the same October heralded a critical moment in General Practice history. The challenge, put simply, was to avoid the ruin of General Practice through vertical integration in a system in Devon with a history of financial failure.
Rapid innovation was essential
In order to coordinate a response across Primary Care the LMC needed to rally it’s members behind county wide initiatives for both GP providers and broader Primary Care collaboration. The LMC brought the other statutory committees together in 2022 under an organisation called the Association of Medical Pharmaceutical Optical and Dental Statutory Committees known as MPOD. This organisation is now the development of a collaborative in order to fill the void as the ICB contracts into strategic commissioning.
What this will look like in practice
The MPOD has now rebranded as the Primary Care Collaborative Board and they have included Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE). The LMC has also provided full support to the Devon Collaborative Board so that they can create a Devon wide GP Collaborative to form a protective layer for partnerships when contracts are being let across the county.
The impact so far
Other key players are now aware that Primary Care does not want to be ‘done to’ and wants to be responsible for its own destiny in Devon and more broadly across the peninsular when the time is right. For the first time Primary Care now has a seat at the ICB Board alongside colleagues from Secondary Care.
Why this matters
The greatest threat to Primary Care is their budgets being delegated to organisations with no expertise in their business and deficits to reduce. This organisation can prevent the inappropriate loss of funds to our corner of the health system.
Looking ahead
We have a long way to go with funding a critical path to success. The vision is that the PCCB can fund hold for Primary Care in order to ensure that precious finances are used wisely to improve population health, increase and enrich patient care and deliver the pivot to community care enshrined in the 10 Year Plan.