MINUTES OF CREWKERNE HEALTH CENTRE PATIENT FORUM (PF) HELD ON TUESDAY 22ND OCTOBER 2013 AT CREWKERNE HEALTH CENTRE
Present: Neville Adams, Tesa Budd, Dreda Corlett, Kerry Cousins, Joan Farris, David Hughes (Chairman), Annie Gleeson (Secretary), Bob Meades, Jayne Nicholas, Louise Walker. Guest speaker, Oliver Taylor.
1.Apology for absence was received from Sylvia Allman.
2.Notes of last meting and any matters. There were no additional comments on the minutes of the previous meeting. LW reported that an impressive 192 Patient Survey forms had been handed in at the Flu Fun Day.
3.Feedback from the Flu Dun Day (FFD). It was generally agreed that the day had been a great success. So much so, that LW reported that the Practice Doctors were considering extending it to a weekend event next year, with the second day being used just for flu vaccinations. The total amount raised towards Children in Need is £3091 so far. £300 will be given to the WI for their fundraising activities, and £300 to the Patient Forum. It was agreed to donate half of this amount to Children in Need and keep half (£150) towards future health events. DH read out a letter of thanks to the PF from LW on behalf of the Practice.
It was felt that the system of selling raffle tickets at £1 for a strip of 3 tickets and £2 for 3 strips had made the process quite hard work! However, it was agreed that with the Raffle raising £996, maybe the system had encouraged people to buy more tickets as they felt they had a better chance of winning a prize. It was unanimously agreed that the prizes donated by Waitrose had been very generous.
4.Guest Speaker. Oliver Taylor is part of the Technical Support Team for the South West Commissioning Support Unit for the Telehealth scheme,based in Bridgwater. He gave a detailed and interesting explanation of the way that Telehealth is being used throughout the County. The scheme comprises a range of technical equipment that patients can be trained to use in their homes to monitor some long term health conditions. This enables them to become more confident and competent to self manage, reduces anxiety and thereby improves their quality of life.
Mr Taylor demonstrated some of the equipment on a PF guinea pig! The basis of the system resembles a mobile phone and uses blue tooth and touch screen technology. The Patient is prompted by a series of questions from the main control unit to key in details of their current health status. Information from other equipment, such as electronic scales, can also be fed into the control unit.
Currently Telehealth is being used to support people with chronic heart failure, chronic obstructive airways disease and diabetes. Patients are able to take their own biometric measurements, such as blood pressure, weight, blood oxygen levels and blood sugar, and answer questions about their individual symptoms, when prompted by the equipment. This information can then be fed back to either their doctor or nurse, electronically. The Telehealth system is designed to identify changing trends in the patient’s condition. The clinician can then recognise when the patient’s condition is deteriorating and make adjustments to behaviours or medication to manage the problem. Currently there are a group of ‘matrons’ based in Wellington, who carry out the Clinical Monitoring for the whole of Somerset and can always respond immediately to a red alert, if they identify that a patient’s condition is deteriorating. They feed back the information to the relevant GP practiceparticipating in the Telehealth scheme. This has the ability to reduce the number of visits to the GP practice and also reduce emergency admissions to hospital.
A number of issues were raised by the PF group. KC was concerned that the Bridgewater/Wellington Centres were covering a very large area in Somerset. OT reassured TB that the Telehealth system could be installed anywhere there is a mobile phone signal. He also confirmed that previous readings from a patient are stored in the main unit, as well as on the server. There are 500 Telehealth Units available, 300 of which are currently being used in Somerset. OT reported that the age range of patients who have used Telehealth in Somerset is from 16 to 95. He also informed the PF group of the considerable success that has been achieved with Telehealth in the field of UTIs (urinary tract infections) in a Care Home in Wincanton where the number of GP visits was reduced by 35%.
OT also outlined the way in which a participating Practice would have to be set up to use the Telehealth scheme. There would need to be one designated GP and two nurses trained to receive and process the patient information. Patients would be selected by their GP based on need and suitability to take part in the scheme – it is important that suitable patients are selected if the process is to be successful. There is a payment to the GP Practice of £100 for each suitable patient who participates in the Telehealth scheme.
LW confirmed that Crewkerne Health Centre is not currently involved in using Telehealth, although the Practice has had a demonstration of the scheme and may well consider getting involved in the future. She also felt that consideration would need to be given to additional staff being trained to cover absences (holidays and sickness) within the core Telehealth group in the Practice.
The Chairman thanked Mr Taylorfor his interesting and useful presentation.
5.Newsletter items. Suggestions for items for the December issue of the Newsletter included: details of holiday opening times for the Crewkerne Health Centre over the Christmas period, as well asall pharmacies in the Crewkerne area and Boots in Yeovil: information about the new GPs who have recently joined the Health Centre; feedback about the FFD, including details of the money raised for Children in Need; reminder about the 31st December deadline for completing the Patient Survey forms; a reminder about the importance of attending appointments –or cancelling appointments in good time; feedback about the Telehealth presentation; details of the minor illnesses treatable through the Crewkerne Pharmacy. AG suggested (space permitting) including a profile of a Health Centre staff member in each quarterly magazine – e.g. a ‘day in the life’ of a Practice Receptionist/Nurse/GP/Practice Manager!
6.Meeting Dates. It was agreed that future meetings will be held alternately on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Dates for 2014 will be: January 15th, February 13th, March 12th, April 10th, May 14th, June 19th, July 16th, (no August meeting), September 18th, October 15th, November 13th (no December meeting).
7.Practice use of single use instruments. This item had been proposed by Geoff Clarke who, unfortunately, was not able to attend the meeting. LW reported that although there was obvious concern about the apparent waste caused by disposing some instruments after one use, the procedure is dictated by the Department of Health. Both JF and DG confirmed that the cost of sterilisation would be just as expensive. LW suggested that maybe a scheme could be established whereby the equipment would be included in a mass sterilization process and then sent to third world countries where the need for such equipment is desperate. DC commented that she had recently heard of an incident whereby the disposal of needles (used by a visiting Diabetic patient) had been particularly difficult, with no sharps bin being available in any pharmacy. LW confirmed that collection of clinical waste from patients is the responsibility of South Somerset District Council.
8.Forum Development Discussion. Suggestions for a 2014 programme included, continuing PF support in the Flu Fun Day; a Diabetes Day at the Henhayes Centre; a talk from one of the Health Centre GPs about important issues arising from working in a busy practice, including how the PF can be most usefully involved; a Men’s Health Day – possibly incorporating the ‘Movember’ event which GPs are participating in this November; and using the March Newsletter to report back on the issues raised by the Patient Survey.
This last suggestion lead to a further discussion about some of the issues that have already come to light from the Patient Survey forms, including continuity of GP contact, the telephone appointments system – and parking problems! BM is currently carrying out the process of inputting the survey form data to produce a statistical review of the information. It was suggested that the March Newsletter could include detailed feedback from the Survey, once all the information has been processed.
9.Any Other Business. There was general agreement that the PF needed to recruit more members. JF reported that she had 4 names of interested candidates but, as yet, none had confirmed their willingness to join the PF. JN suggested approaching students involved in Heatlh and Social Care Courses, who might like to get involved in the PF.
LW reported that the MerriottSurgery project had now, reluctantly, been put on hold. Another site is being considered but there is some uncertainty about the funding.
Date and time of next meeting – Thursday 21st November, at 7.00 p.m.
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