BOROUGH LANE SURGERY

PATIENT PARTICIPATION GROUP

MINUTES OF MEETING HELD ON

WEDNESDAY 13NOVEMBER 2013

AT BOROUGH LANE SURGERY

Present:

Patient representatives:Francis Deutsch, Marion Hardy

Practice staff: Linda Ainscough, Alison Bartram, Sue Barnfather

Apologies:Sarah Buchallet, Laurel Burton,Alison Butterworth, Vanessa Cowell,Norman Flynn, Pam Giddings, Angela Hartland, Kate Johnson, Michael Nicholson, Kathleen Senior, John Stewart, Allan Wilkinson,John Gerrard, Gita Mohabir, Wassim Mughal, Graham Sawyers, Anna Swinburn, Liz Vaughan-Adams

Dr Jenni Lindford

  1. Welcome and introductions

Linda Ainscough (Practice Manager) welcomed a new member.

  1. Minutes of the previous meeting and matters arising

The minutes of the previous meeting were reviewed. There were no matters arising not already on the agenda.

  1. NHS111 and Out-of-Hours

Linda gave an update on NHS111 which was launched locally on 1 November. NHS111 will now respond to all calls outside our normal opening hours (08.00 – 18.30, Monday – Friday). The practice’s telephone message out-of-hours now asks patients to redial 111 (calls to 111 are free so this is cheaper for the patients than being diverted to 111). A call handler will then ask a series of questions to triage the call and refer them on appropriately. This may involve asking the patient to contact their GP the next working day, sending details to the out-of-hours doctor on duty for them to call the patient back or advising the patient to attend A&E.

  1. Changes to the use of personal information – Care data, HSCIC

The NHS leaflet about HSCIC Care data and the practice’s own leaflet on the topic had previously been circulated to all members of the PPG. These were discussed again. In brief, it is planned for data from GP surgeries clinical records to be extracted from the clinical systems onto a national secure database in an anonymised format. The Health & Social Care bill makes this a legal requirement and therefore the data can be extracted without individual’s being asked for express consent. Patients may opt out if they wish. Forms are available at reception to opt out.

  1. West Essex CCG – My health, my say, my future

As part of patient involvement in West Essex CCG an open meeting for Uttlesford residents had been held recently. At the meeting presentations had been made on changes in the CCG structure to develop integrated pathways putting GPs at the centre of the provision of care. Emphasis was made of the need to integrate with Social Care. Pathways are being redeveloped for the care of

  • maternity and paediatric care
  • working age adults with long term conditions
  • vulnerable people – mental health, learning disabilities
  • the elderly and frail

A number of issues had been raised from the floor including GP access and CCG commissioning from private providers such as Circo

  1. Patient Survey for 2013-14

The group was asked to consider the practice’s annual patient survey and to propose topics for inclusion in the next survey to be held in January/February 2014. Email requests for suggestions had not resulted in any topics for inclusion.

The questionnaire used for the survey in March 2013 and the results of that survey were considered in depth. The results for 2013 were excellent. The group did not feel that there were any significant issues facing the patients at the surgery and thought that similar questions should be asked again. There was considerable discussion on the detail of the questionnaire and suggestions for improvement:

  • Too long
  • Remove questions on A&E attendance
  • Remove questions on home visits (cover in a separate survey if feedback needed)
  • Remove questions about repeat prescriptions
  • Move demographic details to the end
  • Make the questions about contacting the surgery clearer
  1. Election of officers

Linda again asked for volunteers to become Chair and secretary of the group but this was deferred until the next meeting

  1. Date of next meeting

Date to be advised once the patient survey is completed and analysed.