AUDLEY MILLS USER GROUP
Wednesday 26thSeptember 2012
AUDLEY MILLS MEDICAL EDUCATION CENTRE
MINUTES
1.Welcome & Minutes of last meeting
Brian Dawbarn (BD)welcomed everybody to the meeting and thanked them for attending. He asked for any apologies and was advised that Pauline Dunmore had sent hers.
He also welcomed Ian Copland and thanked him for joining the group. Steve Doherty (SD) said that he had also invited another couple of patients who would possibly be able to attend future meetings.
2.Minutes of last meeting
These were agreed as correct
3.Action arising
·SystmOnlineFlyer
SDsaid that he had discussed with the doctors whether it would be worth producing a flyer to be handed out by them and also at reception, but it was decided that as the numbers were increasing rapidly anyway, it was probably not worthwhile. He confirmed that the total number registered on SystmOnline was now 3972. He said that the number of appointments booked this way each morning varied between 15 to 25, but obviously a lot of the patients registered use the system just to order their repeat prescriptions.
·Running late
The Group said that staff should always inform patients if they were aware that a GP or Nurse was running late and perhaps a message could be put on the Jayex Boards in the waiting room. It was felt that more than 15 minutes late needed action.
4.Patient Participation Action Plan
SDsaid that the work done on last year's patient participation plan had resulted in the Practice achieving all the targets, but that as it was a two year plan it was now necessary to build on what was done last year. He said that a previous meeting of the user group had discussed sending 100 questionnaires to the e-mail group, but also had decided to send by post to a Group that didn’t necessarily have access to email. He said that we were looking for a Group of about 50/60.
He said that perhaps one of the groups could be taken from the COPD register (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) as it would cover 58 patients who had recently attended the Practice. However, the Group also suggested he could possibly write to patients who had large numbers of repeat medications or perhaps to patients who are currently pregnant. The Group requested that the Practice contacted a selection of patients from each of the three groups identified above, with perhaps 40 from each of the first groups and 20 from the third.
5.Complaints Summary
SD said that Sally Downs (SAD) had looked at the request to prepare anonymised complaints for discussion at the Group. He gave out an example of one and pointed out that not only did it take a great deal of time to anonymise it, there was still the possibility that the patient involved could be recognised by someone who knew them and he felt that from the confidentiality point of view, it was probably best not to give out so much information. This was agreed and the Group asked for just the summary every six months.
The summary was discussed and it was noted that there were very few complaints about administration or reception.
6.Comments / Suggestions from Group members
There were no suggestions or comments that weren’t covered in other items on the agenda.
7.Update
·Workload / Appointments
SD said that as usual the appointments at this time of the year were freely available, but agreed that a few months ago this was not the case. He said that always things eased off during the summer and started to build up again towards Christmas. He said that the Surgery now had 16 GPs and was seeing many more patients each year, but there were still occasions when the demand greatly exceeded the supply.
·Care Quality Commission
SAD said that she was responsible for confirming to the CQC before 1 April 2013 that the Surgery was compliant in all requirements. There are 16 sections which relate to the operation of the building and the work carried out there and these are extremely detailed. An example had already been given out to the members prior to the meeting.
·PCT/CCGs/Other PPGs
SD said the progress was being made towards the establishment of the Castle Point & Rochford Clinical Commissioning Group which would be taking over some of the roles of the PCT on the 1stApril 2013, although other functions of the PCT would be devolved to other bodies, primarily the NHS Commissioning Board and the Commissioning Support Units.
He said that he was a little concerned that Rayleigh and Rochford might not be well represented in the new Commissioning Reference Group which will involve representatives from Practice Groups, as it seemed to be focusing on the Castle Point area. BD brought the Group up to date on his understanding of the current position and said he would be attending a meeting the following week to discuss this. 2 members of the Group volunteered to go with him.
·Staff and Doctor changes
SD said that the appointment of Sally Downs as Practice Manager and his own change to Practice Business Manager took place on the 1stApril 2012 and that despite rumours to the contrary he was still working full time.
He said that currently one of the GPs was on maternity leave and that Dr Luke Whiting had recently joined the Practice as a salaried GP.
·Telephone System
SD said that there was no doubt that owing to a change in the way people now operate their phones,the 0844 number was proving to be a problem for those who didn’t have a landline and/or had a bundled package on their mobile which didn’t include 0844 numbers. He said that whilst this hadn’t been the case when the Surgery went to this system, in view of the problems the Surgery was looking at ways to ease this. He said that the current contract still had 3.5 years to run and that the DOH guidelines allowed Surgeries to continue until the contract ran out. He said he was looking into finishing it early if possible, but it would cost several thousand pounds. Additionally, and he said this is what he wanted all patients to be aware of, there is no system using a landline that would allow patients to hold in a queue if they wished. The only queue would be according to how many lines went into the Surgery (currently 6) and that patients would get the engaged tone after that, whereas with the 0844 there is a queue of up to 50 patients, if anybody chooses to use it. As a lot of appointments are now made as Book on Day appointments, most patients phone when the lines open at 8.00am and they would lose the ability to hold and wait if they wanted to.
The Group agreed that this would be a retrograde step and that the present system should be retained. In the meantime it was asked that from time to time the Practice did continue to identify a landline system that would allow patients to be held in a queue if they wished.
·Opening Hours
SD said that owing to a change in the Extended Hours terms, the Surgery could nowhave 2 GPs working together if they wished after 6.30pm until 8.00pm. Currently there is one GP each evening Monday – Thursday and it is proposed to change this to 2 GPs on a Monday and 2 on a Thursday, but to close at 6.30pm on Tuesday and Wednesday. The main reason for this is that it would allow the Training GPs to work with their Trainees, as the Trainees can only see patients when another GP is working. The Group agreed they could see the reasons behind this and had no objections as long as the total number of available appointments remained the same.
8.AOB
·BD reminded SD that he should produce a quarterly progress report for the members and SD agreed.
Date of next meeting :Wednesday 13thMarch 2013
6.30pm Audley Mills Education Centre