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Implementation Coordination Group

August 2006 (updated January 2008)

• Membership - go to this section
• Others in attendance - go to this section
• Protocol - go to this section
• Terms of reference - go to this section

The Implementation Coordination Group (ICG) was first established as an interim arrangement to deal with problems during the implementation phase of the new General Medical Services (GMS) contract. It was re-established in response to calls from local medical committees (LMCs) for involvement from the General Practitioners Committee (GPC) and the Department of Health (DoH) in local disagreements with primary care organisations (PCOs) that could not be resolved locally and which were inappropriate for formal dispute resolution procedures. The full terms of reference and membership of the group can be found below.

The Implementation Coordination Group (ICG) meets monthly and comprises of a negotiator from the three National negotiating parties – Richard Armstrong (Department of Health), Philip Grant (NHS Employers Organisation) and Hamish Meldrum (GPC). The ICG deal with both local and national problems arising from the interpretation of the GMS contract regulations and guidance and provides a final recommendation on matters raised.

Many of the cases that are referred to the ICG relate to local enhanced services disputes. The GPC’s Enhanced Services Subgroup will act as the formal tier between local LMC-PCO negotiations and the ICG to reduce the number of enhanced services related disputes that are referred to the ICG.

The group will consider England only issues. However, this does not prevent matters of principle being disseminated to colleagues in the three devolved nations in order to pool information and share best practice.

Terms of reference

• To comment and make a final recommendation on issues raised when necessary at the request of LMCs (as routed via the GPC-LMC Liaison Officer)
• To comment and make a final recommendation on issues raised when necessary at the request of primary care trusts (PCTs) (as routed directly from PCTs via strategic health authorities (SHAs) to NHS Employers or the Department of Health)
• To take issues back to the relevant parties as deemed appropriate for further information to allow a decision to be made
• To communicate the decisions made by the ICG to the relevant parties. GPC to communicate to LMCs and NHS Employers or the Department of Health to PCTs via SHAs.
• Secretariats to gather all necessary information from LMC, PCT and SHA before referring the case to the ICG
• Secretariats to liaise on any potential case in order to reduce the number of cases brought before the ICG
• To build a library of agreed decisions for dissemination among LMCs and PCTs
• To collect/disseminate examples of good practice to LMCs and PCTs
• To devise, and keep up to date, a set of Frequently Asked Questions on disputes and to provide access to these via each respective website

Membership
Dr Laurence Buckman - Chairman, GPC
Steve Golledge - NHS Employers
Steve Rowlands - Primary Care Contracting, Department of Health

Others in attendance
Stephanie Ashmore - GPC Secretariat (ICG secretariat)
Christopher Scott - GPC Secretariat (ICG secretariat)
Marie-Claire Demblon - NHS Employers (ICG secretariat)

Protocol
Role of organisations
The role of each organisation represented in the ICG as follows:

GPC Secretariat – to obtain evidence from the LMC on a particular case and disseminate decisions to them accordingly.

NHS Employers – to obtain evidence from SHAs (on behalf of PCTs) on a particular case and disseminate decisions to them accordingly.

Primary Care Contracting, Department of Health – to obtain evidence from SHAs (on behalf of PCTs) on a particular case and disseminate decisions to them accordingly.

NHS Primary Care Contracting – to obtain evidence from SHAs on a particular case, disseminate decisions to them accordingly and share learning with PCTs and SHAs.

Process of referral
For a diagram for PCTs, SHAs and LMCs to follow when considering referring a case to the ICG please see the pdf document using the link on the right.