Alton Patient Participation Group
Minutes of the Meeting held on Tuesday 6th February 2018 at 9.30am
Present:Dorothy Clohesy (Chair), Jenny Manley (Practice Manager) Sylvia Hollins,Freda Martin, Tony Moult, Elaine Plant (Secretary), Yvonne Sommerville and Peter Walker
- Apologies: Carol Edwards and Kathy Leese
- Minutes of the last meeting:
The Minutes of the meeting on 9th January 2018 were approved as a true record.
- Matters Arising:
a.Nominations for the Chair
The group were unanimous in nominating DC as the Chair.
DC’s major concern was the amount of unnecessary emails she received, the majority of which were pages long and contained irrelevant information to PPG’sapart from one sentence which was usually in the last paragraph. It reached a saturation point last month and that was the main reason for DC wanting to stand down as Chair. However, this month the emails hadlessened considerably and in view of this and with the support of all members she agreed to carry onas Chair.
b. Volume of emails
Members thanked DC for reconsidering andwere in agreement that as our representative, sheshould voice our concerns re unnecessary emails at the next Locality Meeting on Thursday.
A discussion took place regarding the Locality Group meetings which were set up originally as a support group for local PPGs and where representatives from each group could share good/bad practiceand pass on relevant information to their groups.
c. JM Patient Questionnaire Rota
The annual Patients survey was due to be completed before the end of March. Although it is not compulsory, CQC consider it to be good practice and request it when doing an Inspection.
A rota was organised for week commencing Monday 19th March for members to give out questionnaires to patients at morning surgery as follows:
Monday9.00 – 11.30Yvonne Sommerville
Tuesday9.00 – 11.30Elaine Plant
Wednesday8.00 – 9.00Jenny Manley
9.00 – 11.00Peter Walker
11.30 – 12.30Sylvia Hollins to cover Baby Clinic.
Thursday9.00 – 11.30Dorothy Clohesy
Friday9.00 – 11.30Freda Martin
TM would attend if and when he was able.
Survey questions discussed.
PW offered to collate information with results being published in the next Newsletter.
d. YS Health & Social Care
A discussion took place regarding H & S Care. Where these Agencies worked closely together in different parts of the country i.e. Newcastle-on-Tyne they function very well and were not experiencing a Winter Crisis.
4.Reports from Members:
.CE - a. Smear Tests for over 70s.
Unfortunately CE was unable to attend the meeting but it was established that NHS Screening was not carried out for over 70s. If a patient had a problem they would be referred by their GP’s to a Gynaecologist if necessary.
Screening is available as follows:
25-49 every 3 years
50-65 every 5 years
Over 65s - only women who haven’t been screened since aged 50 or who have recently had abnormal tests.
Members discussed above and it was suggested that both Smear Tests and Prostate Tests would be included in next Newsletter.
b. Upskill of Carers:
CE would discuss this at the next meeting.
YS– Carers’ Hub
The Carers Hub had now moved to Cheadle Fire Station based in Ashbourne Road, ST10 1HF.
A list of dates would be included in the next Newsletter but if anyone wanted further information they could contact Yvonne Sommerville on 01538 756586.
JM – Pharmacy now open until 1.00 pm.
Winter Pressures:
The Government & NHS decided to run a winter pressure scheme to which GPs could sign up to. GP’s would be allocated a budget according to list size to offer a number of extra urgent appointments per week in a bid to stop patients from attending A & E. The practice signed up forthis and proposed that every Tuesday & Friday between 3 & 4pm urgent appointments were offered. Out of 20 sessions, only 2 urgent appointments were made during these times. The completed return to NHS England reflected this and was not acceptable. However, as the practice has always made provision for urgent appointments quite a few extra patients had been seenat morning surgeries and for 30 minutes before evening surgeries started at 4.30pm. If NHS England will not accept that extra appointments have been made in this way the practice would have no choice but to book in urgent patients between 3 & 4pm on Tuesdays and Fridays only. JM would keep us informed.
5.Newsletter
We would aim to have the Newsletter ready for the end of March.
6. Dates of next Meeting:
6th March 2018
10th April 2018
8th May 2018